60 


I  \ 


1A628 


0 
0 


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etches  of  some 
of  tlie  I*^<Diminent 
Members  of  the 
Orange  County  Bar 


f.WL 


%iiim 


« 


THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


SKETCHES 

OF  SOME  OF  THE 

Prominent  Members  of  the 
Orange  County  Bar 


Prepared  by 
WALTER  C.  ANTHONY 


Published  by  the 
ORANGE  COUNTY  BAR   ASSOCIATION 


Go 


PREAMBLE 


"To  all  persons  to  whom  these  presents  shall 
-come;  Greeting!" 

'Know  ye'  that  the  preparation  of  this  little 
book  is  due  to  a  desire  on  the  writer's  part  to 
learn  and  record  as  much  as  possible  regarding 
the  careers,  the  characteristics  and  the  personal 
appearance  of  the  lawyers  of  Orange  County  in 
former  days : 

The  publication  of  the  book  is  due  to  the 
interest  felt  by  the  Orange  County  Bar  Associ- 
ation in  the  lawyers  who  have  shaped  the  history 
and  moulded  the  professional  ideals  of  the 
Orange  County  bar  of  this  day. 

The  writer  is  painfully  aware  of  the  imperfec- 
tions of  his  part  of  the  work.  He  owes  much  to 
the  assistance  that  has  been  given  by  friends, 
especially  by  Hon.  William  Graham,  L.  L.  D. ; 
but  even  with  that  help  the  book  falls  far  short 
of  being  what  it  was  intended  to  be.  The  most 
perplexing  problem  connected  with  it  has  been 
whom  shall  we  include  and  whom  omit?  Prob- 
ably some  are  included  who  should  not  have 
been  and  doubtless  a  number  are  omitted  who 
were  entitled  to  "honorable  mention."  If  this 
latter  fact  is  the  cause  of  disappointment  or 
dissatisfaction  on  the  part  of  anybody  I  beg  him 
to  remember  that  the  work  only  professes  to 
contain  sketches  of  some  of  tho  distinguished 
lawyers  of  the  county. 

The  intention  was  to  give  in  this  volume 
accounts  of  only  such  members  of  our  bar  as 
had  "dcpartefl  out  of  this  world"  before  this 
work  was  begun, — to  wit  before  January  ist, 
T917.  A  partial  modification  of  this  rule  has 
bf'cn    made   in    the  case  of   Mr.    I.owis   K.   Carr. 


This  has  been  done  because  no  portrait  of  Mr_ 
Carr  can  be  found  in  any  publication  so  far  as 
the  writer  is  informed  and  unless  it  was  con- 
tained in  this  book  the  time  would  soon  come 
when  it  would  be  extremely  difficult,  perhaps 
impossible,  for  the  younger  members  of  our  bar 
to  learn  what  manner  of  man  Mr.  Carr  appeared 
to  be. 

In  fact  this  last  suggestion  may  be  applied 
with  equal  force  to  a  number  of  the  men  whose 
careers  are  sketched  in  this  book.  Of  several  of 
them  no  portrait  has  ever  been  published;  of 
several  others  portraits  are  only  to  be  found  in 
books  that  are  out  of  print  and  hard  to  procure. 
These  facts  go  far  towards  justifying  the  publi- 
cation of  this  work. 

In  a  few  years  it  would  become  well  nigh 
impossible  to  make  a  collection  of  the  portraits 
of  the  former  leaders  of  our  bar  which  would 
be  as  nearly  complete  as  is  that  contained  in 
this  volume. 


If  any  reader  of  these  'sketches'  is  offended  by 
the  frequent  appearance  of  the  pronoun  T — in 
its  various  forms — will  he  kindly  remember  that 
in  a  work  of  this  kind  it  is  extremely  difficult  to 
avoid  that  objectionable  feature. 


The  writer  hopes  that  the  labor  involved  in 
the  preparation  of  this  little  book  will  be  some, 
though  a  very  inadequate,  return  for  the  invari- 
able kindness  and  courtesy  with  which  he  has 
been  treated  by  his  fellow-lawyers  during  the 
many  years  that  have  elapsed  since  he  came 
among  them  and  became  a  member  of  the  Orange 
County  Bar. 

WALTER  C.  ANTHONY. 

Newhur^h,  N.  Y. 

September,  19/7. 


Sketches  of  Some  of  the  Prominent 
Lawyers  of  Orange  County. 


The  bar  of  Orange  County  has  never  been 
without  its  full  quota  of  exceptionally  able  men, 
but  never  in  its  whole  history  had  it  a  larger 
proportion  of  distinguished  members  than  it  had 
during  the  early  years  of  the  igth  Century — or 
in  other  words  just  about  a  hundred  years  ago. 

Since  then  we  have  had  many  lawyers  whose 
homes  v/ere  in  this  county  who  were  men  of 
state-wide  reputation;  but  between  1800  and 
1820  there  were  a  number  of  the  members  of 
our  bar  who  were  men  of  national  repute.  In 
fact  there  is  a  tradition  that  Aaron  Burr  had  an 
office  at  Goshen  at  that  time.  Be  that  as  it  may 
it  is  a  fact  that  as  Attorney  General  of  this  State 
under  appointment  of  Governor  Clinton  in  1789; 
as  a  member  of  Assembly  in  1800;  and  as  a 
member  of  the  Constitutional  Convention  of  1801 
(of  which  he  was  chosen  President)  he  was  in 
each  instance  credited — or  should  I  say  debited? 
— to  "Orange  County." 

The  reason  why  men  of  first  class  ability  were 
content  then  to  settle  at  a  distance  from  the 
cities  is  not  far  to  seek.  In  the  year  1800  the 
population  of  Oranp;e  County  was  about  thirty 
thousand  and  that  of  New  York  City  was  about 
sixty  thousand.  Albany  had  a  population  of 
between  five  and  six  thousand.  Outside  of  these 
two  cities  there  was  no  place  of  importance  anv- 
where  in  the  State.  In  fact  if  Long;  Island  is 
excepted  nearly  all  there  was  of  the  State  of 
New   York   in   the  way  of  population   was  con- 


tained  within  a  strip  forty  miles  wide  extending 
from  the  East  River  to  Saratoga,  the  Hudson 
River  being  the  middle  of  the  line. 

This  situation  which  induced  some  of  the 
most  prominent  lawyers  of  the  State  to  maintain 
their  offices  at  that  time  in  the  rural  districts 
was  by  no  means  confined  to  Orange  County. 
In  Dutchess  County  James  Kent  had  withdrawn 
from  active  practice  late  in  the  i8th  Century, 
when  he  was  appointed  Judge  of  the  Supreme 
Court;  Smith  Thompson,  Thomas  J.  Oakley, 
James  Emmet  (ist)  and  others  were  still  resi- 
dent in  that  County.  In  Columbia  County 
Martin  Van  Buren  (who  ranked  among  the 
greatest  lawyers  of  the  State  prior  to  becoming 
its  greatest  politician)  ;  Benjamin  F.  Butler,  his 
partner,  who  soon  outstripped  the  senior  member 
of  the  firm  in  real  forensic  ability;  and  the  in- 
comparable Elisha  Williams,  one  of  the  greatest 
advocates  this  State  has  ever  produced  if  the 
traditions  of  the  bar  are  to  be  credited,  were 
adorning  the  bar  of  that  County  during  a  number 
of  the  early  years  of  the  igth  Century. 


To  return  to  Orange  County: — Among  the 
group  of  brilliant  and  able  lawyers  who  resided 
here  at  that  time  the  leader  of  the  bar  was 
unquestionably 

JOHN  DUER 

who  was  born  at  Albany,  N.  Y.,  on  October  7, 
1782,  and  died  at  the  home  of  his  son,  William, 
on  Staten  Island  on  August  8,  1858.  His  father 
(William  Duer)  was  an  army  officer  and  was 
stationed  at  Albany  at  the  time  of  John's  birth, 
which  occurred  while  the  mother  was  visiting 
her  husband  at  the  last  named  city. 

In  early  life  the  subject  of  this  sketch  seems  to 


JOHN"    Dl'KU 


have  been  inclined  to  adopt  his  father's  profes- 
sion and  at  the  age  of  sixteen  he  entered  the 
mihtary  service.  Apparently  he  soon  tired  of 
this  as  he  resigned  after  two  years  and  a  little 
later  began  to  "read  law"  in  the  office  of  Alex- 
ander Hamilton  in  the  City  of  New  York.  He 
removed  to  Goshen  in,  or  about  the  year  1800, 
and  was  there  married  in  1804  to  Annie  Bedford 
Bunner.  Ruttenber  and  Clark's  history  of  the 
County  states  that  her  brother  Rudolf  Bunner 
was  John  Duer's  first  partner  in  business.  Mr. 
Duer  seems  to  have  continued  to  make  his  home 
at  Goshen  until  about  the  year  1823.  In  the  year 
182 1  he  was  elected  as  a  delegate  from  Orange 
County  to  the  Constitutional  Convention  which 
was  held  that  year  and  in  that  convention  he 
made  a  deep  and  lasting  impression  by  his  ability 
and  eloquence.  The  Constitution  prepared  by 
that  convention  was  adopted  by  vote  of  the 
people  and  went  into  effect  on  January  i,  1823. 
The  discussions  in  the  convention  had  empha- 
sized the  need,  which  had  been  felt  for  a  long 
time,  for  a  revision  of  the  statutes  of  the  State. 
This  work  had  been  done,  nominally,  several 
times  prior  to  1821 — but  none  of  these  so-called 
'revisions'  was  anything  more  than  a  mere  re- 
enactment  in  a  consolidated  form  of  the  existing 
statutes  as  they  had  been  passed  from  time  to 
time,  with  some  amendments,  suggested  by  the 
revisers  or  inserted  by  the  legislature ;  there  was 
no  attempt  at  systematic  arrangement  in  any  of 
them. 

As  an  outgrowth  of  the  work  of  this  Constitu- 
tional Convention  of  182 1  the  legislature  passed 
an  act  in  the  year  1824  appointing  James  Kent, 
(then  ex-chancellor),  Erastus  Root,  (then 
Ivieutenant  Governor),  and  P.rniamin  F.  Butler, 
(then  District  Attorney  of  Albany  County)  to 
revise  the  statutes  of  the  State.  It  may  safely 
be  guessed  that  Kent's  selection  was  due  to  his 
standing  at  the  bar;  Root's  to  his  official  position 


as  Lieutenant  Governor;  and  Butler's  to  the 
influence  of  Martin  Van  Buren  who  had  been 
his  partner  in  business  and  was  then  United 
States  Senator.  Be  this  as  it  may  the  selection 
of  Mr.  Butler  was  a  most  fortunate  one.  He  was 
not  only  a  lawyer  of  exceptional  ability  but  was 
an  extremely  industrious  and  systematic  worker; 
and  he  only  of  the  three  original  appointees 
continued  in  the  work  of  revision  until  it  was 
completed.  Judge  Kent  declined  to  serve,  and 
the  Governor — Yates — thereupon  appointed  John 
Duer,  the  subject  of  this  sketch,  to  fill  the 
vacancy  thus  arising,  and  he  promptly  accepted 
the  appointment.  Mr.  Root  retired  from  the 
Commission  in  1825  and  the  Legislature  there- 
upon passed  an  act  enlarging  the  powers  of  the 
Revisers  and  substituting  Henry  Wheaton  in 
Mr.  Root's  place.  This  new  member  of  the 
Commission  was  at  that  time  the  Reporter  for 
the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States;  later 
he  entered  the  diplomatic  service  of  this  country 
and  in  March,  1827,  resigned  his  office  as  Com- 
missioner and  in  his  place  Mr.  John  C.  Spencer 
was  appointed.  This  appointment  was  also  a 
fortunate  one  as  Mr.  Spencer  was  not  only  a 
lawyer  of  first  class  ability  but  was  withal  an 
untiring  and  indefatigable  worker. 

He  remained  on  the  Commission  until  its  work 
was  completed  in  1828  and  on  the  loth  day  of 
December  in  that  year  its  third*  (and  final) 
report  was  adopted  by  the  Legislature  and 
became  "the  law  of  the  land,"  to  take  effect 
January  i,  1830.  Meanwhile  Mr.  Duer  had  found 
it  necessary  to  withdraw  from  the  Commission 
owing  to  the  pressure  of  his  professional  engage- 
ments, and  possibly  on  account  of  the  additional 
work  involved  in  connection  with  the  office  of 
United     States     District     Attorney     (Southern 


•  Three  Special  Sessions  of  the  Legislature  were 
helf]  to  consider  and  adopt  the  (three)  reports  of  these 
Commissioners. 

8 


District  of  New  York)  to  which  he  had  been,  or 
was  about  to  be,  appointed.  Butler  and  Spencer 
completed  the  work  without  further  assistance. 

It  is  only  fair  to  Mr.  Duer's  memory  to  say 
that  at  the  time  he  retired  from  the  Commission 
— which  was  late  in  the  year  1827  or  early  in 
1828 — its  labors  were  well  advanced  towards 
completion.  The  outline,  scope  and  arrangement 
of  the  whole  work  had  been  decided  on  and  the 
Commissioners  reports  theretofore  made  to  and 
adopted  by  the  Legislature  covered  those  de- 
partments of  the  law  which  were  peculiarly 
involved  and  intricate.  It  is  also  due  to  his 
memory  to  say  that  his  fellow  Commissioner, 
Benjamin  F.  Butler,  expressly  and  openly  credit- 
ed Mr.  Duer  with  having  first  suggested  the  plan 
for  "a  new  and  more  scientific  revision  of  the 
statutes,"  and  with  being  "the  soul,  the  master 
spirit,  of  the  Commission." 

It  v/ould  be  impossible  for  anybody  who  was 
not  educated  in  the  law  to  appreciate  properly 
the  importance  of  the  work  done  by  these  Com- 
missioners. It  has  been  of  the  utmost  value  to 
the  people  of  this  State — and  not  to  them  only 
but  throughout  the  United  States,  for  it  has 
served  as  the  guide  and  basis  of  much  of  the 
legislation  of  nearly  every  State — perhaps  of  all 
the  States — of  the  Union.  No  wonder  that  one 
of  these  Commissioners  (Butler)  gave  instruc- 
tions that  this  inscription  be  engraved  on  his 
monument,  "A  Commissioner  10  Revise  the 
Statute  Laws  of  the  State  of  New  York." 

The  lawyers  of  this  generation  seldom  realize, 
if  ever,  the  confusion  and  intricacy  which  marked 
our  legal  system — if  system  it  could  be  called — 
prior  to  this  revision  of  our  statutes;  and  the 
extent  and  accuracy  of  the  knowledge  of  the  law 
as  it  then  existed  which  was  required  in  these 
men  to  destroy  the  old  structure  and  to  replace 
it  with  the  new  can  hardly  be  appreciated.  If 
they  had  done  nothing  more  than  write  off  the 


old  rubbish  by  which  the  title  to  real  estate  was 
sought  to  be  regulated  and  to  replace  it  with  the 
present  system  they  would  have  deserved  the 
lasting  gratitude  of  their  fellow  citizens  and  of 
all  future  generations.  It  was  a  jungle,  a 
labyrinth,  full  of  springes  and  pitfalls :  they  made 
it  a  comparatively  plain  and  open  highway — but 
even  yet  the  wayfaring  man,  though  not  a  fool, 
may  easily  err  therein.  Even  yet  the  remark 
made  by  one  of  the  wittiest  lawyers  who  ever 
practiced  in  this  County  that  "a  knowledge  of 
the  law  of  uses  and  trusts  comes  only  through 
fasting  and  prayer"  holds  true  to  a  large  extent. 
It  is  a  strait  gate  and  "few  there  be  that  go  in 
thereat."  But  this  branch  of  the  law  which  is 
now  "deep"  was  then  bottomless.  And  that 
portion  of  the  revised  statutes  which  covers  this 
abstruse  subject  seems  to  have  been  prepared  by 
John  Duer!  No  clearer  proof  of  his  surpassing 
ability  as  a  lawyer  could  be  asked! 

As  showing  the  spirit  in  which  this  work  was 
done  I  quote  a  passage  from  a  letter  written  by 
Mr.  Duer  to  one  of  his  fellow  Commissioners 
regarding  their  work.  He  says,  "Let  us  act  and 
labor  under  the  belief  that  we  are  working  for 
posterity  and  that  great  results  are  dependent 
(as  I  am  convinced  they  are)  upon  our  success." 
In  another  letter  he  says,  "I  am  satisfied  that  we 
shall  have  to  work  continuously  eight  or  ten 
hours  per  day." 

And  what  was  their  reward?  In  part  it  was 
the  consciousness  of  a  public  duty  well  done. 
In  part  the  gratitude  (now  almost  forgotten)  of 
their  fellow  citizens  and  of  their  brother  lawyers. 

And  what  financially?  Mr.  Duer  and  Mr. 
Spencer  each  received  four  thousand  five  hun- 
dred dollars — and  Mr.  Butler  was  paid  six 
thousand  five  hundred  dollars.  His  larger  com- 
pensation was  due  to  his  having  been  enp^apred 
longer  in  the  work  and  having  prepared  the 
indexes. 

10 


This  compensation  (?)  was  at  the  rate  of  about 
twelve  hundred  dollars  per  year.  Beggarly  as 
it  seems  it  was  far  more  liberal  than  the  legis- 
lature had  planned  to  be,  for  in  the  original  act 
appointing  the  Commissioners  it  was  provided 
that  their  work  should  be  completed  in  two 
years  and  that  their  compensation  should  be  one 
thousand  dollars  each! 

Mr.  Duer  held  positions  of  great  honor  and 
usefulness    later    in    life,    but    it    may    well    be 
doubted   whether   he   was   ever   able   to   render 
another  as   great   and   enduring   service   to   the 
community  as  he  did  as  one  of  the  Commissioners 
to  revise  the  statutes  of  this  State.     In  1828  he 
was  appointed  United  States  District  Attorney 
for  the  Southern  District  of  New  York  and  that 
position  he  held  for  a  year  or  two.     In  1849  he 
was  elected  to  be  one  of  the  judges  of  the  Super- 
ior   Court    of    New    York    City — a    court    since 
abolished  but  which  then  had  jurisdiction  nearly 
identical  with  that  of  the  Supreme  Court  except 
that  it  was  confined  to  a  more  limited  territory. 
In  May,  1857,  he  was  appointed  Chief  Judge  of 
that   Court   and   this  position  he  held   until  his 
death.     His  decisions  are  scattered  through  the 
Superior   Court   reports   which   cover  the   years 
when  he  was  on  the  bench  and  they  give  evidence 
of  his  legal  ability  and  learning. 

In  addition  to  the  work  which  he  did  as  a 
judge  he  reported  the  decisions  of  the  Superior 
Court  during  the  last  six  years  of  his  life.  These 
decisions  constitute  the  six  volumes  of  "Duer's 
Reports."  He  also  prepared — though  this  was 
done  earlier  in  his  life — a  treatise  on  Marine  In- 
surance which  was  very  highly  esteemed  in  its 
day. 

As  has  been  stated  already.  John  Duer's  father 
was  an  officer  in  the  army  of  the  United  States. 
His  mother  Catherine  Alexander  was  a  daughter 
of  William  Alexander,  the  Lord  Sterling  of 
Revolutionary  days.  Their  children  were  Wil- 
li 


liam,  John  and  Alexander  and  perhaps  others  of 
whom  the  writer  has  not  learned.  William  was 
scarcely  less  distinguished  than  John,  having 
been  a  justice  of  our  State  Supreme  Court  for 
many  years.  Alexander  v/as  also  a  lawyer  and 
is  said  to  have  been  in  partnership  with  his 
brother  John  at  the  time  the  latter  removed  from 
Goshen.  Alexander  married  Miss  Maria  Wes- 
cott  of  Goshen.  He  died  at  a  comparatively 
early  age  leaving  two  daughters,  one  of  whom 
became  the  wife  of  Judge  David  'F.  Gedney. 
The  Duer  family  inherited,  through  their  mother, 
an  interest  in  large  and  valuable  tracts  of  land 
lying  in  this  County  and  in  Southern  Ulster 
County  and  they  were  very  possibly  influenced 
by  that  fact  in  choosing  Goshen  as  their  place  of 
residence.  The  record  of  litigation  as  to  some 
of  these  lands  can  be  found  in  the  nth  volume 
of  Johnson's  Reports  at  page  364  and  again  in 
the  13th  volume  of  same  at  page  536  under  the 
name  of  "Jackson  ex.  dem.  Livingston  against 
DeLancey." 

In  1804  John  Duer  married  Annie  Bedford 
Bunner  as  already  stated.  Their  home  in 
Goshen  was  spoken  of  for  many  years  after  they 
removed  to  New  York  and  down  almost  to  the 
present  time  as  a  center  of  all  delightful  and 
uplifting  influences.  They  and  other  leading 
citizens  of  Goshen  of  that  day  gave  a  tone  and 
charm  to  society  in  that  village  which  lasted  for 
more  than  half  a  century — and  for  aught  the 
writer  knows  is  still  felt. 

John  Duer  is  uniformly  spoken  of  by  those  who 
knew  him  as  a  remarkably  eloquent  man;  a 
ready  and  forcible  speaker  who  had  all  the 
attractive  elements  of  the  orator — a  commanding 
presence,  persuasive  manners,  a  melodious  voice, 
an  unusually  full  and  choice  vocabulary  and  close 
reasoning  powers.  His  educational  advantages 
were  not  good  but  by  diligent  study  and  appli- 
cation he  overcame  this  impediment  completely 

12 


and  became  a  profoundly  learned  man  not  only 
along  the  lines  of  his  own  professional  work  but 
in  the  broader  fields  of  literature  and  philosophy. 
It  has  been  recorded  by  those  who  knew  him  well 
that  he  could  read  Latin,  French  and  Italian 
without  being  aware  that  he  was  reading  a 
foreign  language.  Withal  he  was  a  Christian 
gentleman  of  the  highest  and  best  type.  Orange 
County  has  a  right  to  be  proud  that  the  character 
and  career  of  such  a  man  were  so  largely  shaped 
in  her  midst  and  has  reason  to  be  thankful  that 
his  ihfluence  in  behalf  of  good  citizenship  and 
high  culture  was  so  long  exerted  among  his 
neighbors  and  friends  in  his  early  home. 

He  left  several  children — one  of  them,  a  son 
named  William,  was  at  one  time  in  the  diplomatic 
service  of  the  United  States  Government ;  and 
two  unmarried  daughters  who  taught  a  school  on 
Staten  Island  down  to  a  comparatively  recent 
date. 


OGDEN  HOFFMAN 

The  subject  of  this  sketch  came  of  a  family  of 
marked  distinction.  His  father,  Josiah  Odgen 
Hoffman,  was  a  lawyer  of  very  high  standing, 
and  his  half-brother,  Charles  Fenno  Hoffman, 
was  as  well  known  in  literary  circles  as  was 
Ogden  among  the  lawyers.  Murray  Hoffman,  a 
cousin  of  his,  was  a  lawyer  of  eminence  and  a 
justice  of  the  Superior  Court. 

Some  facts  appearing  in  the  older  reports  of 
the  decisions  of  our  courts  have  led  me  to  sus- 
pect that  Ogden  Hoffman  was  really  named  in 
full  for  his  father  "Josiah   Ogden"  and  that  he 


NOTK. — A  brief,  but  «-xrcll<nt  Hkftcli  nf  John  Diior 
l8  Klven  In  Hutt«:nhfT  and  Clark'H  History  of  Ornnire 
County,  anfl  the  trlbutOH  paid  to  hlH  memory  at  th<;  time 
of  hia  death  arc  preflxed  to  the  6th  volume  of  Duer'n 
ReportH. 

18 


(wisely)  dropped  the  less  euphonious  name.  In 
many  of  the  older  cases  for  instance  occurring 
between  1800  and  1820  the  attorney  for  one  of 
the  litigants  is  stated  to  have  been  "J,  O.  Hoff- 
man;" but  about  1820  to  1825  several  cases 
appear  in  the  reports  in  which  one  of  the  attor- 
neys is  stated  to  have  been  "J-  O-  Hoffman,  Jr." 
This  was  doubtless  the  one  whom  we  know 
merely  as  "Ogden  Hoffman."  See  i  Cowen's 
Reports,  page  45,  and  again  same  volume,  page 
58.  In  both  these  cases  The  Bank  of  Orange 
County  was  plaintiff  and  in  both  Hoffman  was 
plaintiff's  attorney.  In  other  words  it  was 
Goshen  business  and  the  attorney  was  "Ogden" 
Hoffman  in  all  probability.* 

The  elder  of  these  two  famous  lawyers  was 
celebrated  both  for  wit  and  for  learning  and 
seems  to  have  been  as  full  of  mischief  and  play- 
fulness as  a  schoolboy  all  his  life.  Edwards  in 
his  "Pleasantries  About  Courts  and  Lawyers" 
gives  several  anecdotes  of  this  "learned  counsel- 
lor" of  the  olden  time  one  of  which  relates  an 
incident  said  to  have  occurred  in  the  Court 
House  at  Goshen  and  which  consequently  may 
be  not  out  of  place  here.  Elisha  Williams,  the 
famous  advocate  from  Columbia  County,  was 
summing  up  a  case.  Mr.  Hoffman — Josiah  O. — 
in  sheer  mischief  took  occasion  to  inform  a 
brother  lawyer  sitting  near  him  in  the  bar  that 
he  was  afraid  one  of  the  jurors  did  not  hear  that 
superb  speech  as  he  was  very  hard  of  hearing. 
He  took  care  to  say  this  in  a  "stage  whisper" 
which  would  be  heard  readily  by  Williams'  client 
who  sat  close  to  the  gentleman  to  whom  Hoff- 
man spoke.  The  client  fidgetted  uncomfortably 
for  a  few  moments  and  then  pulled  Williams' 
coat  tail  and  whispered  to  him  "speak  louder, 
Mr.  Williams."     As  the  speaker  was  then  using 


•  This  was  not  the  only  instance  of  this  sort  in  the 
Hoffman  family.  Murray  Hoffman's  name  was  David 
Murray,  but  he  dropped  the  "David." 

14 


OrjDKN    HOKKMAN 


the  full  volume  of  his  powerful  (but  melodious) 
voice  the  client's  suggestion  was  not  adopted  and 
presently  Hoffman  again  whispered  to  his  neigh- 
bor that  the  deaf  juror  evidently  did  not  hear 
Mr.  Williams  as  he  was  paying  no  attention  at 
all  to  what  was  being  said.  Again  the  client 
tugged  at  Mr.  Williams'  coat  and  urged  him, 
"For  heaven's  sake  speak  louder,  Mr.  Williams." 
Everybody  in  the  courtroom  began  to  see  the 
joke  except  the  anxious  client  and  v/hen  Hoffman 
said  to  his  neighbor  a  few  minutes  later  that 
Williams  would  surely  lose  his  case  unless  he 
spoke  louder  the  client  could  control  himself  no 
longer  and  springing  to  his  feet  appealed  to  the 
Court  to  direct  Mr.  Williams  to  speak  loud 
enough  for  the  deaf  juror  to  hear.  What 
happened  next  is  not  stated  by  Mr.  Edwards  but 
no  doubt  Williams  told  Hoffman  that  he  "owed 
him  one"  and  would  pay  him  the  first  chance  he 
got.  Such  were  some  of  the  pranks  of  the  grave 
and  dignified  counsellors  of  a  hundred  years  ago.* 
Ogden  Hoffman — or  Josiah  Ogden  Hoffman 
(2nd) — if  that  was  really  his  full  name — was 
born  on  May  3,  1793,  in  the  City  of  New  York 
and  died  in  that  City  on  May  i,  1856.  His 
mother's  maiden  name  v/as  Mary  Colden.  She 
was  a  daughter  of  David  Colden  who  was  the 
youngest  son  of  Lieutenant  Governor  Cadv/al- 
lader  Colden.  Her  father  was  obliged  to  leave  this 
country  at  the  close  of  the  Revolutionary  War 
on  account  of  his  sympathy  with  the  English 
cause.  He  and  his  family  went  to  England. 
There  he  soon  died  and  his  widow  and  children, 
including  this  daughter,  Mary,  v/cre  brought  to 
this  country  and  made  their  home  with  Cad- 
wallader  Colden  (2nd)  at  Coldenham  in  this 
county.     These  facts  possibly  influenced  Ogden 


•  Thp  Court  IToiisf  of  t)iiit  flav  )h  phnwn  at  the 
extrerrip  left  of  the  plrtnro  of  OoKhon  whlfh  anpoars 
on  nnothor  pncf.  It  stoofl  nhoiit  whom  tho  f'ounfy 
Clork'n  ofTlro  stnnrl.M  now.  Tho  roiirt  room  wa.H  on  tho 
second    floor   of   that    bullclinp   at    the   west   end 

16 


Hoffman  in  his  choice  of  Goshen  as  the  place 
where  he  would  study  law.  He  was  among 
relatives  who  were  people  of  standing  and  influ- 
ence. 

One  of  the  daughters  of  this  lady,  in  other 
words  a  sister  of  Ogden  Hoffman,  Matilda  by 
name,  was  betrothed  to  Washington  Irving. 
Her  death  at  the  age  of  seventeen  left  him  so 
deeply  bereaved  that  he  never  met  another 
woman  whom  he  could  love  and  as  is  well  known 
he  died  a  bachelor. 

In  1812  the  subject  of  this  sketch  graduated 
from  Columbia  College  and  in  1814,  on  the  last 
day  of  that  year,  he  was  appointed  a  midshipman 
in  the  United  States  Navy.  The  following  year 
he  served  under  Commodore  Decatur  on  the 
"President"  and  with  the  Commodore  was  taken 
prisoner.  He  seems  to  have  obtained  an  early 
release  however,  for  he  served  again  with  Decatur 
in  the  war  with  the  Barbary  States.  In  18 16  he 
resigned  from  the  navy,  much  to  the  disgust  of 
Decatur  who  said  that  he  regretted  that  such  a 
promising  man  had  "left  an  honorable  profession 
for  that  of  a  lawyer." 

Soon  after  this  young  Hoffman  began  to 
"read  law"  in  the  office  of  his  father  in  New  York 
City  and  a  year  or  two  later  came  to  Goshen 
and  continued  his  legal  studies  there.  At  this 
point  in  his  career  there  is  a  bit  of  obscurity  as 
to  his  course.  Some  authorities  state  that  he 
studied  law  at  Goshen  with  John  Duer;  others 
merely  say  that  he  continued  his  studies  at 
Goshen  with  a  lawyer  of  that  place  with  whom  he 
afterwards  formed  a  partnership.  Furthermore 
some  of  the  biographical  encyclopedias  state, 
in  connection  with  their  account  of  the  life  of 
William  H.  Seward,  that  he  studied  law  at 
Goshen  in  the  office  of  John  Duer  and  Ogden 
Hoffman.  These  statements  seem  to  indicate 
quite  clearly  that  Duer  and  Hoffman  were  co- 
partners in  business  in  or  about  the  year  1820, 

16 


at  Goshen.  The  circumstance  is  not  of  any  great 
importance  of  itself,  perhaps,  but  it  is  certainly 
of  interest  when  the  standing  and  ability  of  the 
two  men  is  taken  into  account.  It  is  safe  to  say 
that  seldom,  if  ever,  have  two  lawyers  of  such 
pre-eminent  ability  and  such  wide  reputation 
been  associated  as  copartners  in  business  in  this 
County.  What  a  team  it  must  have  been!  And 
when  the  fact  that  Seward  was  a  student  in  their 
office  is  added  we  have  a  group  of  three  of  the 
ablest  men  in  the  State  brought  together  in  one 
law  office  in  the  quiet  little  village  of  Goshen! 
It  is  a  noteworthy  circumstance  too  that  both 
the  members  of  this  firm  of  Duer  &  Hoffman  (if 
such  copartnership  actually  existed  as  it  seems 
almost  certain  was  the  case)  should  have  had  a 
military  experience — one  in  the  Army  and  the 
other  in  the  Navy  of  the  United  States — before 
entering  on  the  study  of  the  law. 

Mr.  Duer  removed  from  Goshen  to  New  York 
in  or  about  the  year  1823  and  Mr.  Hoffman 
followed  him  to  that  city  a  few  years  later,  in 
the  year  1828  or  thereabouts.  He  was  elected 
in  1826  to  the  Assembly  from  Orange  County 
and  in  1828  from  New  York.  He  was  District 
Attorney  of  this  County  from  1823  to  1826.  At 
about  the  time  of  his  removal  from  Goshen  he 
is  said  to  have  formed  a  copartnership  with  Mr. 
George  F.  Talman  but  whether  it  had  reference 
to  business  matters  at  Goshen  or  to  those  in 
New  York  City  the  writer  has  not  learned.  Be 
that  as  it  may  it  is  certainly  a  fact  that  very 
shortly  after  his  removal  to  New  York  he  formed 
a  partnership  with  Hugh  Maxwell  who  was  then 
the  District  Attorney  of  that  County. 

Ogdcn  Hoffman's  career  after  he  went  to  the 
metropolis  was  so  conspicuously  successful  and 
prominent  that  his  fame  as  a  lawyer  is  probably 
more  widely  known  than  that  of  any  other  attor- 
ney who  ever  had  his  home  in  Orange  County. 
He  filled  the  office  of  District  Attorney  of  New 

17 


York  County  from  1829  to  1835 ;  was  a  repre- 
sentative in  the  United  States  Congress  for  two 
terms  from  1837  ^^  1840 ;  was  United  States 
District  Attorney — for  Southern  District  of  New 
York — in  1841 ;  and  Attorney  General  of  this 
State  in  1853-4  a^d  5.  This  last  mentioned  office 
had  been  filled  by  his  father,  Josiah  Ogden  Hoff- 
man from  1795  to  1802. 

As  an  advocate  Ogden  Hoffman  stood  among 
the  very  first  of  his  day.  To  great  readiness  and 
fluency  of  speech  he  is  said  to  have  joined  a  voice 
of  such  rare  sweetness  and  charm,  that  it  led  to 
his  being  spoken  of  frequently  even  to  this  day 
as  "the  flute."  For  profound  learning  in  the  law 
Mr.  Duer  was  probably  his  superior  but  as  an 
advocate  Hoffman  seems  to  have  'oeen  the  more 
popular  of  the  two.  In  looking  at  the  portraits 
of  the  two  men  which  are  presented  with  this 
article  it  suggests  itself  that  very  possibly  Hoff- 
man was  the  more  "magnetic"  of  the  two.  He 
looks  it. 

Fifty  years  ago  when  I  was  a  student  in  the 
office  of  Judge  David  F.  Gedney,  at  Goshen,  he 
told  me  this  anecdote  about  Mr.  Hoffman.  Not 
many  years  after  he  removed  to  New  York  he 
was  brought  back  to  this  County  to  defend  a 
man  who  had  been  sued  for  breach  of  promise 
of  marriage.  Mr.  Samuel  J.  Wilkin  of  Goshen 
was  the  attorney  for  the  plaintiff  and  the  trial 
constituted  a  battle  royal,  for  when  Mr.  Wilkin 
was  in  good  health  he  was  equalled  by  few  and 
excelled  by  none  before  a  jury.  I  speak  of  his 
health  because  he  was  subject  all  his  life  to  very 
intense  headaches  which  were  likely  to  attack 
him  during  any  exciting  trial  and  which  com- 
pletely prostrated  him  when  they  occurred.  On 
the  trial  of  this  breach  of  promise  case,  however, 
he  escaped  without  any  such  attack  and  when 
the  "summing  up"  was  reached  he  was  in  fine 
shape.  Gedney  as  a  boy  of  twelve  or  fourteen 
years  was  in  the  court  room  and  listened  to  the 

18 


addresses  of  these  two  brilliant  men  and  as  he 
himself  told  the  story  he  said,  "I  listened  en- 
tranced to  the  speech  of  Mr.  Hoffman  and  v/hen 
it  ended,  and  a  hush  fell  upon  the  audience,  it 
seemed  to  me  that  Mr.  Wilkin  might  as  well 
remain  silent;  that  it  would  not  be  possible  for 
any  mortal  man  to  undo  the  effect  of  Mr.  Hoff- 
man's address  to  that  jury.  But  Mr.  Wilkin's 
speech  which  followed  was  as  much  better  than 
Hoffman's  as  the  latter's  was  better  than  one 
that  I  could  have  made  as  a  boy  at  that  time." 
Hoffman  had  then  made  a  great  reputation  in 
New  York  City  and  was  naturally  on  his  mettle 
when  brought  back  to  try  an  important  case 
among  his  old  neighbors. 

The  plaintiff  had  a  verdict  for  fifteen  hundred 
dollars  which  in  that  day  was  unprecedented. 
Mr.  Hoffman  was  wild  about  it  for,  as  he  himself 
stated  it,  the  case  was  absolutely  destitute  of  the 
usual  aggravating  circumstances. 

With  such  examples  as  these  to  learn  from  it 
is  not  to  be  wondered  at  that  Gedney  himself 
became  a  master  of  the  art  of  public  speaking. 

In  an  indirect  way  Mr.  Hoffman's  connection 
with  the  affairs  of  Orange  County  continued 
after  his  death  for  ten  or  a  dozen  years  subse- 
quent to  that  event — in  other  v/ords  about  the 
year  1870  his  widow  rented  the  old  Sands  place 
just  south  of  the  "covered  bridge"  at  Moodna 
(in  the  Town  of  New  Windsor)  and  resided 
there  for  several  years. 

Mr.  Hoffman  was  twice  married.  His  first 
wife  was  Miss  Emily  Burrall,  whose  father, 
Jonathan  Burrall,  was  at  that  time  the  cashier 
of  the  Orange  County  Bank.  Their  marriage 
occurred  on  June  27,  i8ig.  By  her  he  had  two 
sons,  Charles  Burrall  and  Ogden.  His  second 
marriage  was  to  Miss  Virginia  E.  Southard.  It 
occurred  on  November  15th.  1838.  The  issues 
of  this  marriac;e  were  a  son — Samuel  Southard 
and   two  daughters   Mary   Colden   and   Virginia 


Southard.     The  daughters  are  now  (1916)  living 
in  London,  England. 

His  son  Ogden  was  Judge  of  the  United  States 
District  Court  for  California  for  many  years. 
He  died  in  San  Francisco  about  the  year  i8gi. 
Judge  Gedney  used  to  speak  in  the  highest  terms 
of  the  conversational  charms  of  this  Judge  Hoff- 
man. In  this  respect  Gedney  claimed  that  the 
younger  man  surpassed  his  father.  Judge 
Gedney  said  that  he  and  the  younger  Hoffman 
when  they  were  lads  together  would  often  go 
out  of  a  morning  gunning,  and  that  many  a  time 
when  they  had  been  out  an  hour  or  two  they 
would  sit  dovv^n  and  rest  on  a  fallen  tree  or  a 
flat  rail  on  a  fence  and  there  they  would  sit  and 
talk  the  livelong  day  forgetting  everything  else 
until  the  sinking  sun  reminded  them  that  their 
day's  hunting  was  ended.  They  must  have  been 
wonderful  talks  for  Gedney  himself  had  very 
great  conversational  charms. 


SAMUEL  J.  WILKIN. 
Born  December  17,  1793.     Died  March  11,  1866. 

Late  in  August,  1864,  I  entered  the  office  of 
David  F.  Gedney,  at  Goshen,  as  a  student.  At 
that  time  Lincoln's  second  campaign  was  under 
full  swing.  There  was  an  important  meeting 
of  Republicans  to  be  held  early  in  September — 
an  evening  meeting — at  Agricultural  Hall  which 
then  stood  about  where  the  grand  stand  of  the 
race  course  is  now. 

It  was  announced  that  Hon.  Samuel  J.  Wilkin 
would  preside,  and  his  active  participation  in  a 
political  meeting  seemed  to  be  regarded  as  quite 
an  event.  So  much  was  said  about  it  among  the 
people  I  met  and  Mr.  Wilkin's  high  standing 
and  marked  oratorical  ability  were  so  frequently 


s.\.Mri:i,  .1     w  ILK IX 


mentioned  that  I  was  all  curiosity  to  see  him  and 
hear  him  speak.  When  the  meeting  was  organ- 
ized and  Mr.  Wilkin  took  the  chair  I  saw  a 
slender  old  gentleman,  of  distinguished  appear- 
ance and  manner,  whose  hair,  still  dark  though 
streaked  with  gray,  was  very  curly  and  whose 
dark  gray  eyes  were  very  piercing.  His  voice 
was  full  and  melodious,  remarkably  so  for  a  man 
of  his  age, — he  must  have  been  nearly  three  score 
and  ten  years  old.  He  made  a  few  appropriate 
remarks  acknowledging  the  compliment,  etc., 
and  they  were  smoothly  and  effectively  express- 
ed. Then  a  disturbing  incident  occurred.  The 
speaker  of  the  evening  failed  to  arrive  owing  to 
his  train  being  half  an  hour  late  and  Mr.  Wilkin 
was  entreated  to  keep  the  audience  together 
until  the  train  arrived.  He  spoke  for  about  half 
an  hour  and  his  remarks  were  obviously  unpre- 
meditated and  absolutely  extemporaneous. 
What  he  said  was  to  the  point  and  well  said  but 
several  of  his  friends  said  to  me  later,  "He  is 
not  the  man  he  was  in  his  prime."  I  was  more 
than  pleased  however  to  have  heard  a  man  of 
Mr.  Wilkin's  reputation  make  a  public  address. 
There  are  few  now  living  who  have  had  that 
pleasure. 

Later,  as  I  saw  Mr.  Wilkin  passing  to  and  fro 
on  his  daily  trips  to  the  Post  Office  I  observed 
a  marked  resemblance  between  him  and  a  por- 
trait I  had  seen  of  Rufus  Choate,  the  famous 
Boston  lawyer.  I  spoke  of  this  to  Judge  Gednej' 
and  he  told  me  that  such  resemblance  had  been 
noticed  and  spoken  of  several  times  before, 
especially  by  people  from  Boston  who  saw 
Choate  frequently;  and  recently  I  have  been  told 
by  Mr.  R.  C.  Coleman,  son-in-law  of  Mr.  Wilkin, 
that  the  latter  was  not  infrequently  addressed  as 
'Mr.  Choate'  when  in  New  York,  Albany  or 
Washington.  Such  resemblance  undoubtedly 
existed  and  was  quite  striking  and  there  was 
much  in  the  character,  temperament  and  methods 

n 


of  the  two  men,  in  which  they  resembled  each 
other.  Wilkin,  like  Choate,  v«?as  a  rushing 
torrent  in  speech — fiery — figurative — vehement 
— and  when  angered  terrible  in  his  invective. 

He  himself  told  me  an  incident  which 
illustrates  these  traits  of  his  character, — for  I 
became  fairly  well  acquainted  with  him  later  and 
called  occasionally  at  his  house,  as  like  all  lonely 
old  men  he  was  always  glad  to  see  younger 
people.  In  an  action  he  tried  in  New  York  City 
his  opponent,  being  a  metropolitan  lawyer,  went 
out  of  his  way  to  speak  in  a  supercilious  tone  of 
Mr.  Wilkin  as  a  country  lawyer,  a  man  from  the 
backwoods,  or  something  of  that  sort — some- 
thing at  all  events  v,^hich  aroused  Mr.  Wilkin's 
indignation — and  as  he  stated  it,  "When  it  came 
my  turn  to  address  the  jury  (I  was  for  the 
plaintiff)  I  paid  my  respects  to  my  opponent  in 
no  measured  terms.  I  don't  know  just  what  I 
said  but  it  must  have  hit  hard  for  he  caught  up 
his  hat  and  left  the  court  room  in  haste  before 
I  had  been  speaking  ten  minutes;  and  when  I 
left  the  room  an  hour  later  (with  a  verdict  in  my 
favor)  m,y  opponent  was  walking  up  and  down 
the  corridor  and  grasping  my  hand  he  exclaimed, 
"For  God's  sake  don't  do  that  again  to  me,  Mr. 
Wilkin." 

In  all  his  ways  and  methods  whether  profes- 
sional or  social  Mr.  Wilkin  was  a  gentleman  of 
the  old  school,  a  refined,  educated  and  scholarly 
man.  One  of  his  literary  diversions  was  the 
perusal  of  the  'Odes  of  Horace'  in  the  original. 
Usually  he  was  a  serious  man  and  intensely  in 
earnest  but  his  humor  was  keen  and  delightful. 
Once  in  conversing  with  him  as  we  were  speak- 
ing of  the  virtue  of  economy  I  quoted  a  line  from 
Burns,  "She  gars  auld  claes  leuk  amaist  as  weel 
as  new,"  and  he  replied,  "Well  some  people  don't 
look  at  it  in  just  that  way.  There  is  the  English 
wit  (he  gave  the  name  but  I  have  forgotten  it) 
who  says,  *A  rent  may  be  looked  upon  as  the 

22 


accident  of  the  day,  but  a  patch  is  an  indication 
of  premeditated  poverty'." 

As  a  slight  indication  of  Mr.  Wilkin's  style  of 
stating  a  point  let  me  give  the  sentence  with 
which  he  is  said  to  have  closed  his  argument  in 
an  important  will  case  in  which  he  was  for  the 
proponent.  "And  now,  Mr.  Surrogate,  let  me 
say  in  closing,  that  if  you  reject  this  will  upon 
the  grounds  urged  here  you  will,  in  effect, 
inscribe  upon  the  tombstones  of  half  the  men  in 
Orange  County,  'HE  DIED  INTESTATE'." 
Spoken  in  his  forceful,  impressive  way,  this  is 
said  to  have  been  a  very  telling  peroration. 

From  Hon.  William  Graham,  L.  L.  D.,  of 
Dubuque,  Iowa,  I  have  a  brief  mention  of  a 
Fourth  of  July  oration  which  he  heard  Mr.  Wilkin 
deliver  and  v/hich  he  describes  as  "eloquent  and 
in  some  passages  brilliant"  and  of  his  summing 
up  in  defence  of  a  young  woman  from  Middle- 
town  who  had  been  indicted  for  larceny.  Mr.  G. 
says  the  address  was  masterly  though  it  failed 
to  get  a  verdict,  the  jury  standing  eleven  to  one 
for  acquittal.  Mr.  Graham  adds  that  the  trial 
nearly  disrupted  Middletov/n. 

At  the  time  Mr.  Wilkin  was  in  active  practice 
there  was  a  lawyer  named  Bradner — Coe  G. 
Bradner — whose  headquarters  were  in  the  west- 
ern end  of  the  County  somewhere,  whose  busi- 
ness methods  were  very  unsatisfactory  to  all  the 
reputable  lawyers  of  the  County  and  particularly 
to  Mr.  Wilkin.  Several  times  an  effort  was  made 
under  Mr.  Wilkin's  leadership  to  "throw 
Bradner  over  the  bar"  but  each  time  something 
occurred  to  "save  his  bacon."  Mr.  Wilkin  once 
in  discussing  the  matter  remarked.  "I  wondered 
for  years  why  Coe  G.  Bradner  had  been  created 
and  why  he  was  permitted  to  live.  But  I  have 
solved  the  problem : — he  is  here  merely  to  prove 
the  truth  of  the  old  Presbyterian  theory  of 
•Total  depravity'." 

This  Bradner  was  assaulted  and  battered  as 

21 


he  claimed  by  one  of  his  clients  and  brought  suit 
to  recover  his  alleged  damages.  In  order  to 
show  malice  he  sought  to  prove  that  the  defend- 
ant had  threatened  before  the  assault  that  he 
would  'go  through  Coe  Bradner.'  As  a  matter 
of  course  Mr.  Wilkin  was  attorney  for  the  de- 
fendant and  in  his  summing  up  he  described 
what  a  startling  experience  anybody  would  have 
who  should  really  "go  through"  Coe  G.  Bradner. 
He  closed  by  remarking  that  the  Harpers'  could 
reap  a  fortune  by  publishing  "A  Journey  through 
Coe  G.  Bradner,  or  Explorations  in  the  Wilder- 
ness of  Sin." 

Mr.  Wilkin's  home  was  in  Goshen  during  his 
whole  lifetime  except  for  about  five  years  when 
he  attempted  to  establish  himself  in  New  York 
City;  but  the  hurlyburly  of  business  there  was 
too  great  a  strain  for  one  of  his  nervous 
temperament  and  rather  delicate  constitution 
and  he  was  obliged  to  return  to  his  home  in  the 
country. 

I  am  reluctant  to  close  this  article  with  such 
an  imperfect  and  unsatisfactory  glimpse  of  Mr. 
Wilkin.  He  was  really  a  most  interesting  and 
attractive  man  and  well  worthy  to  rank  with  the 
two — Duer  and  Hoffman — whose  careers  have 
been  sketched  in  the  preceding  pages  of  this 
volume.  His  educational  opportunities  were 
better  than  theirs  as  he  was  an  alumnus  of 
Princeton  College  (as  was  also  his  father  General 
James  W.  Wilkin).  Moreover  he  was  more 
completely  an  Orange  County  man  than  either 
of  those  two  as  he  was  a  native  of  the  County 
and  excepting  his  brief  residence  in  New  York 
City  his  whole  life  was  spent  here,  which  was 
not  the  case  with  either  of  the  others. 

Among  the  older  lawyers  of  the  County  in  my 
early  days  it  was  conceded  by  all  that  nothing 
prevented  Mr.  Wilkin  from  becoming  a  leader 
of  the  bar  of  this  State  except  his  unstable 
health.     He    was    subject    to    extremely    severe 

24 


nervous  headaches  which  were  uable  to  attack 
him  at  the  most  inopportune  times. 

Judging  from  his  reputation  among  those  who 
had  known  him  in  his  prime  I  am  doubtful 
whether  any  son  of  this  County  was  more  richly 
equipped  for  success  at  the  bar  than  Samuel 
Jones  Wilkin.  He  was  a  son  of  James  W. 
Wilkin  who  was  himself  well  worthy  of  a  place 
among  the  "Great  Lawyers  of  Orange  County" — 
but  he  passed  off  of  the  scene  of  action  so  long 
ago  that  no  traditions  in  regard  to  him  survived 
to  my  time.  All  that  is  known  about  him  is 
stated  in  Ruttenber  &  Clark's  History  of  the 
County. 

In  order  to  show  the  principal  events  of  his  life 
I  add  a  memorandum  of  the  public  offices  held 
by  the  subject  of  this  sketch. 

Appointed  in  1850  a  Canal  Appraiser — but 
declined. 

Member  N.   Y.   State  Senate— 1848-1849. 

Member  Assembly — 1824  and  1825. 

District    Attorney — May    28th    to    May    30th, 

1835- 

Member  22nd  Congress — 1831-1833. 

He  seems  to  have  held  the  ofhce  of  District 
Attorney  of  this  County  for  only  two  days.  In 
that  day  the  office  was  an  appointive  one  and  he 
doubtless  declined  the  appointment. 

In  the  year  1816  he  married  Sarah  Wescott. 
Their  children — (who  lived  to  adult  age) — were, 
Mary,  wife  of  Joseph  Ellis,  of  Mobile,  Ala.; 
Alexander — who  became  a  Captain  in  the  United 
States  Army;  Wescott — who  became  a  Judge  of 
the  District  Court  of  Minnesota;  and  Sarah  W., 
who  became  the  wife  of  Hon.  Roswell  C.  Cole- 
man and  was  beloved  by  everybody  who  knew 
her. 

As  is  the  case  with  most  of  the  distinguished 
lawyers  his  family  name  will  not  be  perpetuated 
among  his  descendants. 


26 


JONATHAN  FISK. 

This  gentleman  could  not  properly  be  omitted 
from  these  sketches  of  the  distinguished  lawyers 
of  Orange  County  for  he  was  undoubtedly  one 
of  the  most  famous  members  of  our  bar  in  his 
day. 

Unfortunately  all  traditions  relating  to  him — 
save  that  he  was  an  exceptionally  able  and  bril- 
liant lawyer — have  faded  out  and  all  that  I  can 
state  in  regard  to  him  is  compiled  from  the 
"History  of  Orange  County  and  Newburgh"  by 
E.  M.  Ruttenber.  The  portrait  which  accom- 
panies this  article  is  taken  from  the  same  source. 

Jonathan  Fisk  was  born  at  Amherst,  N.  H., 
on  September  26,  1773.  At  the  age  of  19  years 
he  left  home  and  obtained  occupation  as  a  school 
teacher,  holding  a  certificate  which  stated  that 
he  was  qualified  to  teach  writing,  English  gram- 
mar and  arithmetic.  In  1795  he  had  received 
another  certificate  stating  that  he  had  lived  for 
several  months  in  the  family  of  Amos  Wood  at 
Ware,  N.  H.,  where  he  had  "read  Greek  and 
Latin  and  attended  to  other  branches  of  study, 
by  which  he  appeared  well  qualified  to  teach  a 
school"  and  that  he  had  "maintained  a  good 
moral  character,"  In  1796  or  '7  he  began  to  study 
law  in  the  office  of  Peter  Hawes  in  New  York 
City.  He  was  without  means  of  support  other 
than  what  his  own  industry  could  furnish  but 
earned  enough  by  acting  occasionally  as  an 
amanuensis  and  by  giving  instruction  to  a  class 
of  young  men  in  the  evening  to  enable  him  to 
complete  his  studies. 

In  1799  he  was  admitted  to  practice  in  the 
Court  of  Common  Pleas  of  Westchester  County ; 
in  1800  in  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  State  and  in 
the  Common  Pleas  of  Orange  and  Ulster 
Counties.  In  1800  he  removed  to  Newburgh. 
In  1802  he  was  admitted  as  a  Counselor  of  Law 
in  all  the  courts  of  the  State  of  New  York. 

26 


JONATHAN    IMSK 


He  continued  to  reside  in  Newburgh  until 
1815  when  he  was  appointed  United  States  Dis- 
trict Attorney — for  the  Southern  District  of  New 
York — whereupon  he  removed  to  New  York  City 
where  he  continued  to  reside  until  1820.  In  this 
latter  year  he  returned  to  Orange  County  and 
purchased  a  farm  a  short  distance  west  of  the 
(present)  City  of  Newburgh — (the  Lynde  Bel- 
knap farm) — and  there  he  continued  to  reside 
during  the  rest  of  his  life.  His  death  occurred 
on  July  13,  1832. 

Prior  to  his  removal  to  New  York  City  he  had 
been  twice  elected  to  Congress — viz  in  1808  and 
in  1814.     The  office  he  resigned  in  June,  1815. 

The  account  from  which  the  foregoing  facts 
are  taken  adds:  "As  a  citizen  Mr.  Fisk  was 
highly  esteemed.  The  town  records,  the  files  of 
our  public  journals  and  his  ov/n  manuscripts  bear 
testimony  to  the  commanding  position  which  he 
occupied  and  to  the  superiority  of  his  abilities. 
The  most  important  cases  were  submitted  to 
his  care.  *  *  *  In  person  he  was  large  and 
of  a  presence  that  impressed  all  with  whom  he 
had  intercourse  with  a  sense  of  his  superiority." 
While  in  Congress  he  incurred  the  displeasure 
of  John  Randolph — (of  Roanoak) — v/ho  vented 
some  of  his  acrid  remarks  upon  Mr.  Fisk  but  the 
latter  retorted  with  such  vigor  as  to  win  Ran- 
dolph's respectful  and  friendly  regard.  He 
seems  to  have  retired  from  active  practice  at  the 
comparatively  early  age  of  forty-seven.  What 
may  have  been  the  reason  for  this  is  nowhere 
stated  in  the  account  of  his  life.  There  was 
some  fault  found  in  regard  to  the  fees  exacted  by 
him  while  holding  office  and  a  congressional 
investigation  followed.  Fisk  is  said  to  have  been 
exonerated — but  possibly  his  business  may  have 
been  seriously  affected. 

It    does    not    take    much    to    ruin    a    lawyer's 
prospects. 


27 


THOMAS  McKISSOCK. 
Born  April  17,  1790.     Died  June  26,  1866. 

In  the  Daily  City  Press  (Newburgh)  of 
Monday,  July  2,  1866,  appears  the  following 
obituary  notice : 

"THOMAS  McKISSOCK" 

"On  Saturday  last  the  mortal  remains  of  the 
late  Thomas  McKissock  were  committed  to  the 
grave  in  the  presence  of  a  large  circle  of  sorrow- 
ing friends.  The  services  at  the  church  were 
chaste  and  appropriate  and  free  from  the  fulsome 
eulogy  which  too  often  disfigures  such  solemni- 
ties ;  while  the  brief  exercises  at  the  grave,  a 
part  of  the  sublime  and  beautiful  Episcopal 
burial  service,  were  rendered  in  a  manner  mourn- 
ful and  solemnly  impressive. 

"It  was  grateful  to  know  that  his  death  was 
preceded  by  no  protracted  illness,  no  suffering 
and  no  mental  alienation,  but  the  powers  of  his 
physical  nature  seem  to  have  worn  themselves 
out  and  he  passed  away  as  placid  and  tranquil  as 
the  infant  sinks  to  rest  upon  the  mother's  lap. 
The  end  of  such  a  man  demands  something  more 
than  the  usual  passing  notice,  for  he  had  filled 
many  important  trusts,  had  been  identified  with 
much  of  the  prosperity  of  this  city,  and  left  an 
example  of  professional  rectitude  and  excellence 
which  his  younger  brethren  should  not  fail  to 
imitate.  He  had  attained  more  than  the  usual 
age  allotted  to  his  kind — for  he  was  seventy-six 
years  of  age — had  survived  the  gentle  companion 
of  his  youth  and  manhood  more  than  twenty 
years,  and  had  seen  his  children  prosperously  and 
usefully  settled.  The  object  and  end  of  his 
existence  seems  to  have  been  attained  for  he  left 
none  of  its  duties  and  obligations  unfulfilled. 

"The  deceased  had  not  the  advantage  of  what 
is  termed  a  university  education.  He  had  no 
diploma  from  a  college  or  other  literary  corpo- 
ration.    But   he   possessed   that   which   colleges 

28 


THOMAS    McKISSOCK 

Born     -     April  17,  1790 
Died       -      Jum-  26,   1S66 


No  Portrait  could  be  found.  He 
was  one  of  the  ablest  lawyers  of 
his  dav. 


and  diplomas  do  not  always  impart, — a  moderate 
acquaintance  with  the  Greek  and  Latin  classics, 
a  good  store  of  professional  learning  and  the 
principles  of  jurisprudence,  and  was  well  versed 
in  history  and  English  literature.  He  had 
studied  medicine  in  his  youth  and  made  himself 
somewhat  acquainted  with  the  kindred  sciences 
of  botany,  chemistry  and  anatomy.  This  was  of 
great  service  to  him  in  the  profession  to  which 
he  afterwards  devoted  himself.  The  leading 
characteristics  of  his  mind  were  strength  and 
power  of  analysis  and  deduction.  He  would 
separate  the  various  propositions  of  an  argument 
with  great  subtlety  and  power,  exhibiting  them 
in  their  various  phases  and  aspects,  and  enforce 
his  deductions  with  illustrations  both  apt  and 
beautiful.  His  arguments  in  the  courts  were 
oftentimes  a  rare  intellectual  treat  (as  those  will 
remember  who  had  the  happiness  to  hear  him) 
sparkling  with  wit  and  humor  which  came 
spontaneously  and  unbidden  from  his  well-stored 
memory  and  glowing  imagination,  as  the  light- 
ning breaks  upon  the  distant  horizon  in  the 
twilight  of  a  summer  evening.  Passages  from 
the  Scriptures,  quotations  from  the  best  English 
writers  and  allusions  to  the  great  actors  and 
events  of  history  were  freely  employed  to  enforce 
and  embellish  his  arguments. 

"He  had  a  happy  and  genial  temper,  with  a 
keen  sense  of  the  ludicrous,  seeing  mirth  and 
amusement  in  incidents  unnoticed  by  others. 
These  qualities,  added  to  fine  conversational 
powers  and  a  large  store  of  entertaining  anec- 
dotes, rendered  him  a  most  agreeable  companion. 
He  had  been  well  instructed  (as  the  children  of 
most  Scotchmen  of  his  time  were)  in  the  fnith 
and  doctrine  of  the  Presbyterian  Church,  of 
which  his  father  was  a  conspicuous  member,  and 
had  a  firm  belief  in  the  leading  truths  of  the 
Christian  religion.  He  was  too  liberal  and  too 
enlightened  not  to  recognize  that  some  of  the 

20 


incidents  related  in  the  Old  Testament  had  been 
put  in  doubt  by  the  discoveries  of  modem 
science,  and  the  researches  of  learned  men  into 
the  origin  and  early  history  of  our  race ;  but  this 
did  not  impair  his  belief  in  the  fundamental 
doctrines  of  the  New  Testament  dispensation. 

"In  politics  he  was  a  Whig  and  a  fast  friend 
of  Henry  Clay  during  the  lifetime  of  that  states- 
man. He  never  acted  or  sympathized  with  the 
Republicans,  for  his  legal  studies  had  rendered 
him  familiar  with  the  limitations  of  the  Con- 
stitution and  our  complex  and  double  system  of 
government  by  the  union  of  the  States  as  well 
as  by  the  States  themselves  acting  within  their 
appropriate  spheres.  He  saw,  or  thought  he  saw, 
a  tendency  in  the  Republican  leaders  to  break 
down  this  distinction  and  to  enlarge  the  powers 
of  the  general  government  by  circumscribing 
those  of  the  States.  This  heresy  he  resisted  with 
all  his  strength.  He  thought  too  that  the  war, 
by  temperate  means,  and  moderate  counsels, 
might  have  been  avoided.  But  when  he  saw  his 
country  committed  to  the  dread  alternative,  and 
blood  had  flowed  and  men  had  fallen  on  the 
battlefield  he  promptly  ranged  himself  on  the 
side  of  the  nation  and  exhorted  his  countrymen, 
in  the  public  assemblies,  to  spare  neither  blood, 
nor  treasure  nor  anguish  nor  suffering  for  the 
protection  and  preservation  of  their  great  in- 
heritance of  free  government.  He,  and  such  as 
he,  have  received  little  credit  for  what  they  did; 
but  the  time  v/ill  come  when  the  nation  will 
recognize  their  patriotism  and  public  spirit, 

"If  we  should  be  asked  to  name  the  particular 
qualities,  moral  or  intellectual,  to  which  Thomas 
McKissock  owed  the  strong  hold  he  had  upon 
the  public  esteem,  and  his  acknowleged  power 
and  influence  in  his  profession  we  should  say, 
principally  his  candor  and  ingenuousness,  his 
manliness  and  moral  integritv-  He  disdained  to 
conceal  what  he  was  or  what  he  thought.     While- 

30 


he  reverenced  learning  and  genius  and  talent, 
from  pretentious  mediocrity  and  pompous  dull- 
ness he  turned  away  with  unaffected  contempt. 
Shams  or  pretenders  he  could  not  endure.  Men 
do  not  realize  the  temptations  which  constantly 
beset  a  lawyer  in  large  practice.  The  weak  and 
the  feeble,  the  ignorant  and  unprotected  are 
often  in  his  power ;  and  if  he  yields  to  the  dictates 
of  greed  and  avarice  rather  than  to  those  of 
mercy  and  justice  he  may  use  his  position  to 
enrich  himself  and  perpetrate  wrongs  of  which 
the  world  will  never  know. 

"The  subject  of  this  sketch  was  proof  against 
these  temptations  for  no  taint  of  dishonor  or 
professional  misconduct  was  ever  associated 
with  his  name,  and  it  may  be  safely  averred  that 
the  man  or  woman  does  not  live  who  can  say 
with  truth  that  he  ever  knowingly  did  them 
wrong  or  did  them  wrong  as  the  instrument  of 
others.  When  we  remember  that  his  practice 
embraced  a  period  of  nearly  half  a  century  this 
is  great  praise.  Whatever  other  faults  he  had 
he  did  not  enlarge  his  fortune  with  the  spoils  of 
helpless,   unprotected  and   confiding  people. 

"Faults  he  doubtless  had  but  they  were  more 
than  compensated  by  his  many  virtues. 

"He  had  some  professional  defects  which  we 
should  not  omit  to  notice.  His  handwriting  was 
wretched — so  illegible  that  few  could  read  it 
without  effort.  This  embarrassed  him  in  the 
preparation  of  his  papers  and  made  laborious  and 
irksome  that  which  otherwise  would  have  been 
a  source  of  real  pleasure.  Had  the  remedy  been 
applied  at  the  outset  of  his  career  it  could  have 
been  overcome.  He  was  careless  and  slovenly 
in  the  arrangement  and  disposition  of  his  books 
and  papers  so  that  they  were  not  always  at  his 
command.  Exact  business  men  will  imderstand 
this  and  see  that  these  things  were  formidable 
impediments  to  successful  progress.  He  had 
also   a   habit   of  procrastination, — of  postponing 

31 


until  tomorrow  that  which  should  have  been 
done  today, — which  often  led  to  loss  and  incon- 
venience. He  was  also  singularly  indifferent  to 
the  acquisition  of  property.  This  was  a  great 
defect,  for  wealth,  united  with  such  moral  and 
mental  qualities  as  he  had  is  a  just  source  of 
legitimate  influence  and  imparts  to  the  possessor 
the  power  to  do  good  which  cannot  be  found  else- 
where. The  love  of  money  is  said  to  be  the  root 
of  all  evil.  We  do  not  accept  the  truth  of  the 
maxim  in  its  application  to  modern  society. 
On  the  contrary  the  love  of  money,  tempered 
with  moderation  and  honesty  of  purpose,  is 
thought  to  be  the  foundation  of  much  good. 
It  is  oftentimes  the  first  step  in  the  improvement 
of  men  of  indifferent  character.  The  liberty  and 
the  power  to  acquire  property  and  the  comforts 
and  refinements  which  property  and  wealth  alone 
can  impart,  has  done  more  for  the  elevation  and 
progress  of  the  downtrodden  classes  of  mankind, 
than  anything  else  that  can  be  named.  The 
deceased's  indifference  to  the  accumulation  of 
wealth  was  the  result,  probably,  of  his  nature 
joined  to  the  assurance  that  the  income  from  his 
professional  labors  would  be  sufficient  for  the 
gratification  of  his  moderate  desires. 

"Such  are  some  of  the  outlines  of  Thomas 
McKissock's  character,  furnished  by  one  who 
knew  him  well  in  his  youth,  his  manhood,  and 
in  his  declining  years,  and  who  during  that  long 
period  received  many  proofs  of  his  friendship  and 
regard.  Peace  to  his  remains.  May  he  long 
be  remembered  as  an  example  for  the  imitation 
and  encouragement  of  others.  May  the  flowers 
that  bloom  above  his  grave  grow  fresher  and 
fairer  and  more  fragrant  with  each  succeeding 
year.  And  may  we  not  humbly  and  reverently 
hope  that  the  spirit  which  animated  the  frail 
tenement  committed  to  its  kindred  dust  has  been 
summoned  by  the  Divine  Creator  to  a  higher 
and   nobler   state    of   being,   the  blessedness   of 

32 


which  no  eye  hath  seen  nor  hath  it  entered  into 
the  heart  of  man  to  conceive." 

William  Graham,  L.  L.  D,,  of  Dubuque,  Iowa, 
writes  as  follows  about  Judge  McKissock : 

"In  my  early  days,  even  before  reaching  my 
teens,  I  used  to  hear  a  great  deal  about  the  firm 
of  Newburgh  lawyers.  Bate  and  McKissock,  but 
while  the  firm  name  was  mentioned  the  talks 
were  always  of  McKissock.  Possibly  this  was 
because  he  was  a  native  of  my  home  town, 
Montgomery,  and  received  his  education  at 
Montgomery  Academy.  His  father,  Thomas 
McKissock,  was  an  Elder  in  Goodwill  Church, 
and  one  of  the  company  who  seceded  and  built 
the  church  at  Berea.  His  son  after  leaving  the 
Academy  studied  medicine,  and  v/as  admitted  to 
practice.  He  began  in  his  native  town  with  his 
office  completely  furnished  according  to  the  re- 
quirements of  that  day.  I  remember  hearing  the 
story  told  that  his  first  call  was  to  attend  a 
woman  in  her  confinement,  and  he  was  so  over- 
come with  sympathy  for  her  sufferings  that  he 
drove  off  to  the  nearest  doctor,  and  sent  him  to 
attend  the  patient,  while  he  went  Iiome  and  closed 
his  office,  disposed  of  his  library  and  instruments, 
and  left  his  profession  forever. 

"He  then  entered  the  office  of  Jonas  Storey  at 
Newburgh,  where  he  had  for  fellow-students 
John  B.  Booth,  afterward  Surrogate  of  Orange 
County,  and  District  Judge  of  Iowa,  and  William 
G.  Belknap  afterward  Major  General  in  the 
United  States  Army.  His  career  at  the  bar  was 
a  long  and  honorable  one. 

"I  doubt  whether  any  of  the  array  of  splendid 
jurists  who  have  adorned  the  bar  of  Oranf^e 
County,  had  a  higher  conception  of  a  lawyer's 
duty,  or  left  a  more  stainless  record  than  Judge 
McKissock.  I  recall  one  story  which  I  heard 
before  I  ever  saw  him.  A  young  member  of  the 
bar  was  consulted  about  bringing  suit  on  a  mat- 
ter in  which  the  law  might  be  in  favor  of  the 


plaintiff,  but  decency  and  morality  was  against 
him.  The  tempting  fee  offered,  dazzled  the 
young  man's  vision,  but  distrusting  his  own 
ability  to  carry  the  matter  through,  he  laid  it 
before  Judge  McKissock,  who  heard  him  through, 
and  by  a  few  questions  put  himself  in  full  posses- 
sion of  the  facts,  and  then  in  his  emphatic  manner 
pointed  out  to  his  young  friend  the  infamy  which 
would  attend  the  attempt,  and  the  certain  ruin 
it  would  bring  upon  him.  The  young  man  told 
the  story  himself,  and  expressed  his  gratitude  to 
the  Judge  for  saving  him  from  ruin,  and  attri- 
buted to  his  reproofs  and  advice  at  that  time  his 
own  rise  to  distinction  in  his  profession. 

"While  I  was  a  clerk  in  Judge  Monell's  office 
in  'the  fifties'  Judge  McKissock  was  a  frequent 
visitor,  and  his  conversation  was  always  interest- 
ing and  instructive  and  sometimes  epigramatic. 
Once,  while  a  number  of  gentlemen  were  there, 
the  recent  decease  of  a  man,  supposed  to  be  very 
wealthy  and  whose  riches  had  been  acquired  by 
devious  means,  was  spoken  of,  and  one  gentle- 
man inquired  of  Judge  McKissock,  'What  did  he 
leave?'  'Everything,'  responded  the  Judge,  'he 
didn't  take  a  thing  with  him.' 

"On  another  occasion  when  a  number  of  gentle- 
men were  discussing  the  character  of  a  certain 
new  comer  into  the  community,  one  of  them 
related  how  this  man,  by  his  selfish  conduct  had 
ruined  the  life  and  caused  the  premature  death 
of  an  accomplished  young  lady,  and  Judge  Mc- 
Kissock exploded,  'Well,  Sir,  if  the  Devil  don't 
get  that  man.  Sir,  I  don't  see  any  use  in  having 
a  Devil  at  all,  Sir.' 

"The  late  H.  H.  Heustis  consulted  him  about  a 
case  in  which  the  pleadings  were  decidedly  mixed, 
going  through  everything  from  complaint  to 
surrebutter  without  reaching  an  issue.  He  sub- 
mitted the  papers  to  the  Judge  who  examined 
them  carefully  and  then  to  Heustis'  anxious 
inquiry:    'What   shall    I   put    in   next?',    replied, 

34 


^Well,  Sir,  I  don't  know,  what  you  will  put  in, 
m,  Sir,  unless  you  put  in  a  blasphemer.  Sir.' 

"Judge  McKissock  in  his  address  to  the  jury 
was  full  of  animation  and  energy,  and  in  his 
arguments  would  often  turn  his  back  upon  the 
jury  as  though  he  was  talking  to  the  listeners  in 
the  court  rooms,  and  his  gestures  were  very 
constant  and  often  vehement.  I  recall  a  story 
often  told  of  one  of  his  contests  with  his  fellow- 
student.  Judge  Booth.  This  gentleman  had 
many  peculiarities,  but  was  a  hard  student  and 
careful  in  his  preparation  of  his  cases,  and  while 
he  did  not  possess  the  genius  or  power  of 
repartee  of  McKissock,  they  were  not  unevenly 
matched.  On  this  occasion  McKissock  had  the 
closing  argument,  and  was  bearing  down  heavily 
on  his  opponent,  who  sat  a  little  in  the  rear  of 
him  shaking  his  head  vigorously  at  the  points 
made  by  plaintiff's  counsel.  As  McKissock  pro- 
ceeded in  his  address  and  as  usual  turned  around 
as  though  addressing  the  audience  he  caught 
sight  of  Judge  Booth's  head  indicating  vigorous 
dissent  and  burst  out,  'Ah,  Judge,  you  may  shake 
your  head,  sir,  and  you  may  shake  your  head, 
sir,  but  there  is  nothing  in  it,  sir.' 

"In  1847  Bate  was  elected  County  Judge,  the 
first  County  Judge  of  Orange  County,  under  the 
Constitution  of  1846,  and  McKissock  was  ap- 
pointed v/ith  Judge  Whittlesey  to  fill  in  the  old 
Supreme  Court  the  places  of  Judges  Bronson  and 
Jewctt  elected  to  the  Court  of  Appeals.  He 
served  one  year  in  that  tribunal  and  closed  up 
the  business  of  the  Old  Supreme  Court.  His 
published  opinions  are  fonnd  in  V,  Denio,  and 
are  dear  and  able  expositions  of  the  law.  In 
1848  he  was  elected  to  Congress,  and  served  one 
term,  giving  v/arm  support  to  the  administrations 
of  Taylor  and  Fillmore,  but  on  the  breaking  up 
of  the  Whig  party  he  afterward  affiliated  with 
the  Democratic  partv.  as  did  his  predecessor  in 
Congress,  Hon.  D.  B.  St.  John. 

36 


"By  the  election  of  Bate  to  be  County  Judge, 
and  the  elevation  of  McKissock  to  the  Supreme 
Court,  their  business  was  broken  up,  and  when 
McKissock  returned  from  Congress  his  clients 
had  mostly  formed  other  connections,  and  hence- 
forth Judge  McKissock  was  mostly  employed 
by  other  lawyers  to  argue  their  cases  in  the 
higher  courts,  though  he  frequently  tried  cases 
at  the  Circuit,  and  was  always  a  formidable  and 
honorable  antagonist,  and  was  long  held  in 
affectionate  remembrance  by  his  associates  at 
the  bar. 

"Judge  McKissock's  character  was  so  upright, 
and  his  treatment  of  others,  especially  young 
men,  so  kindly  that  I  never  heard  a  word  said 
in  disparagement  of  him  or  adverse  comment  on 
him  as  a  lawyer. 

"Possibly  this  last  statement  is  too  broad.  In 
the  case  of  Monell  Ex.  of  Downing  vs.  Collyer 
et  al  (for  the  death  of  Andrew  J.  Downing  in 
the  burning  of  the  Henry  Clay)  in  which  I  heard 
Tom  George  and  Chauncey  Belknap  say  Judge 
McKissock  was  prepared  to  make  the  effort  of 
his  life,  he  was  pitted  against  Ambrose  L.  Jordan 
of  Hudson,  who  had  been  Attorney  General  while 
Judge  McKissock  was  on  the  bench.  It  was  the 
first  time  they  had  met  in  opposition  to  each  other 
and  their  clashes  were  so  frequent  as  to  bring 
down  on  them  the  reproof  of  Judge  Brown, 
winding  up  with  'You  are  not  trying  this  case 
as  well  as  younger  men  would.'  After  the 
adjournment  of  the  case  over  Sunday,  Jordan 
offered  such  terms  of  settlement  that  McKissock 
lost  not  a  minute  in  advising  his  client  to  accept 
them.  He  thus  won  out  for  his  client  but  lost 
the  eclat  that  would  have  attended  the  return  of 
a  verdict  in  his  favor.     But  it  was  just  like  him. 

"I  can  recall  the  appearance  of  Judge  Mc- 
Kissock in  the  'Fifties'  very  distinctlv,  though 
I  do  not  recollect  seeing  him  before  I  took  up 
my  residence  in  Newburgh.     I  am  not  good  in 


painting  the  portrait  of  an  individual,  but  will 
do  my  best  to  comply  with  your  request. 

"Judge  McKissock  was  about  five  feet  nine 
inches  in  height,  stout,  and  solidly  built,  but  not 
portly,  square-shouldered  and  with  a  large  chest. 
His  head  was  large  and  well  shaped.  His  face, 
almost  square,  was  always  cleanly  shaven.  His 
eyes  rather  large  and  prominent  and  bright  blue, 
sometimes  dancing  with  mirth  and  at  others 
blazing  with  indignation.  His  mouth  was  rather 
large,  while  his  chin  bore  evidence  to  his  firm- 
ness of  character.  His  countenance,  usually 
placid,  would  light  up  with  a  pleasant  smile  on 
greeting  a  friend,  but  was  capable  of  assuming 
a  stern  expression  when  facing  a  reluctant  or 
untruthful  witness.  His  voice  was  distinct,  and 
his  manner,  while  devoid  of  any  trace  of  affecta- 
tion or  ostentation,  was  alert,  quick,  nervous  and 
animated,  and  when  speaking  to  a  miscellaneous 
audience  or  addressing  a  jury,  profuse  in  gesti- 
culation, and  never  failed  to  gain  and  hold  the 
attention  of  his  hearers. 

"In  the  trial  of  a  jury  case  his  even  temper  and 
self-control  enabled  him  to  steer  his  case  skill- 
fully from  start  to  finish,  undisturbed  by  adverse 
rulings  of  the  court,  and  unruffled  by  the  efforts 
of  opposing  counsel.  Controlling  himself  he 
enforced  respect  from  his  adversaries.  Deferen- 
tial to  the  court  but  firm  and  unyielding  for 
what  he  considered  the  rights  of  his  clients; 
courteous  to  his  opponents,  the  apparent  justice 
of  his  positions  commanded  the  careful  consid- 
eration of  the  bench,  and  the  close  attention  of 
the  jury.  After  the  lapse  of  more  than  sixty 
years  the  fip;iire  of  Judge  McKissock  stands  out 
before  me  as  one  of  the  best  specimens  of  the 
bar  of  New  York  in  his  day." 


87 


ADDENDA  BY  W.  C.  A. 

Judge  Gedney  told  this  anecdote  of  McKissock. 

An  action  was  brought  against  a  doctor  for 
malpractice.  The  plaintiff  had  sustained  a  com- 
pound fracture  of  the  bones  of  the  leg.  The 
defendant  was  employed  and  set  the  leg  but  for 
some  reason  the  broken  ends  slipped  past  each 
other  and  when  the  injured  man  got  on  his  legs 
again  he  found  that  the  injured  one  was  much 
shorter  than  the  other.  He  brought  an  action — 
McKissock  for  the  plaintiff,  Gedney  for  the 
defendant. 

The  defence  was  that  the  injured  man  had 
eaten  heartily  in  violation  of  the  doctor's  orders 
and  had  in  that  way  brought  on  a  feverish  con- 
dition which  caused  him  to  flounce  about  in  the 
bed  a  good  deal  and  this  had  loosened  the 
splints  and  allowed  the  bones  to  slip. 

Gedney  had  a  natural  taste  for  anatomy.  His 
father  was  a  physician  as  was  also  his  elder 
brother.  He  studied  his  case  carefully  and 
when  he  came  to  the  trial  knev/  a  whole  lot  about 
the  bones  and  muscles  and  ligaments  of  the  leg, 
— knew  all  their  medical  names  and  their  con- 
nections. In  summing  up  the  case  he  used  this 
knowledge  and  almost  unconsciously  applied  the 
technical  medical  names  and  description,  arguing 
that  the  doctor  was  not  in  fault  but  the  patient 
was  to  blame  himself.  Judge  McKissock  opened 
his  address  by  saying  that  the  learning  of  his 
brother  Gedney  had  astonished  him;  that  these 
long  Latin  names  would  puzzle  half  the  doctors 
in  the  land.  But  there  was  once  a  man,  said  he, 
who  knew  even  more  than  my  friend  Gedney 
does.  His  name  was  Solomon.  You  will  find 
him  mentioned  in  the  Bible.  And  he  said: 
"When  a  man's  belly  is  full  his  bones  are  easy." 
And  there,  said  Gedney  in  telling  about  it,  there 
v/as  my  two  hours  speech  all  knocked  into  a 
cocked  hat  in  less  than  five  minutes.     The  best 

38 


of  the  joke  was  never  discovered  by  Gedney. 
McKissock  seems  to  have  humbugged  the  whole 
crowd,  Judge,  jury  and  counsel,  for  there  is  no 
sack  expression  nor  any  resembling  it  anywhere  in 
the  Bible, 

James  S.  Graham — the  elder — studied  with 
Judge  McKissock  but  being  fond  of  society  and 
a  great  favorite  he  was  somewhat  irregular  in 
his  attendance  at  the  office.  On  one  occasion  one 
of  his  young  lady  friends  called  there  and  asked 
if  Mr.  Graham  was  in.  McKissock  answered  very 
suavely,  "Not  at  present."  An  hour  or  so  later 
she  returned  and  inquired,  "Has  Mr.  Graham 
returned  yet?"  The  Judge  replied  somewhat 
tartly,  "No." 

Shortly  afterward  she  came  again  with  the 
same  question  and  receiving  the  same  answer 
she  innocently  queried,  "Why,  he's  studying  law 
in  your  office,  isn't  he?"  The  answer  came  in 
one  word  with  strong  emphasis,    '^occasionally/' 

A  young  lawyer  once  bustled  into  McKissock's 
office  and  in  a  hurried  way  asked  him  some  ques- 
tion in  regard  to  the  law  affecting  trusts.  The 
Judge's  response  was:  "My  dear  young  man, 
don't  you  know  that  a  knowledge  of  the  law  of 
uses  and  trusts  comes  only  through  fasting  and 
prayer." 

Judge  Brown  in  his  obituary  notice  mentions 
McKissock's  illegible  handwriting.  It  was  re- 
puted to  be  exceedingly  bad.  It  was  told  of  him 
that  he  once  wrote  a  letter  and  addressed  it  to 
a  gentleman  in  Illinois.  By  a  series  of  accidents 
— or  providential  interpositions — the  letter  finally 
reached  its  destination  but  the  party  who  received 
it  could  not  read  a  single  word  of  it.  He  there- 
fore cut  off  the  signature  and  pasted  it  on  the 
outside  of  an  envelope.  Then  he  cut  off  the 
caption  and  pasted  it  beneath  the  signature. 
Next  he  inclosed  in  this  envelope  what  was  left 
of  the  letter  and  mailed  it.  Somebodv  there 
deciphered  the  N.  Y,  and  when  it  reached  there 


some  of  their  interpreters  read  the  Newburgh. 

When  it  came  here  our  postmaster  recognized 
Judge  McKissock's  writing  and  the  letter  was 
delivered  with  his  mail.  When  the  Judge  opened 
it  he  could  not  read  a  line  of  it  himself  and  in 
his  explosive  way  he  said:  "Abominable! 
Atrocious!  The  man  who  couldn't  write  better 
than  that  ought  to  be  sent  back  to  school." 
Then,  to  see  who  the  culprit  was,  he  looked  for 
the  signature.  Finding  it  had  been  cut  off  he 
looked  at  the  address  on  the  envelope  and 
recognizing  there  his  own  autograph  he  quietly 
remarked :     "Not  as  illegible  as  it  looked  to  be." 

This  anecdote  came  from  James  G.  Graham 
(the  elder)  who  studied — "occasionally" —  in 
McKissock's  office  and  who  himself  wrote  a 
hand  which  taxed  one's  patience,  and  ingenuity 
to  decipher. 


HON.  JOHN  W.  BROWN. 

Born  at  Dundee,  Scotland,  October  ii,   1796. 
Died  September  6,  1875. 

(The    earlier    portion    of    this    sketch    was    prepared    by 
William  Graham.  L.  I^.   D.) 

I  never  v/as  present  in  Court  when  John  W. 
Brown  was  engaged  as  counsel  but  tv/ice : — Once 
when  Polly  Bodine  was  tried  for  the  murder  of 
her  sister-in-law,  in  April,  1846,  which  was  the 
first  time  I  was  ever  in  a  court  of  record. 
David  Graham,  Jr.,  the  author  of  Graham's 
Practice,  and  one  of  the  Code  Commissioners, 
opened  the  case  for  the  defendant,  and  I  have 
always  thought  that  it  was  that  speech  that  made 
me  a  lawyer.  David  Graham,  Jr.,  A.  L.  Jordan, 
and  John  W,  Brown  appeared  for  the  defendant, 
a  wonderfully  strong  array.  L.  C.  Clark,  Dis- 
trict Attorney  for  Richmond  County  where  the. 
murder  occurred,  and  James  R.  Whiting,  Dis- 
trict Attorney  of  New  York,  for  the  prosecution. 

40 


JOHN   W.    T'.UOWN 


The  defendant  had  been  convicted  in  New  York, 
and  the  Supreme  Court  granted  a  new  trial 
which  was  held  in  Newburgh  before  Judge 
Barculo,  the  first  case  he  tried  as  Judge.  The 
first  witness  for  the  defense  was  Judge  Edmonds 
before  whom  the  case  was  tried  in  New  York. 
As  I  remember  it  Judge  Brown  examined  this 
witness  as  to  the  testimony  some  of  the  wit- 
nesses for  the  State  had  given  in  the  former 
trial.  Some  of  the  witnesses  for  the  prosecution 
had  disappeared  and  the  defendant  was  acquitted. 

On  the  other  occasion  I  was  in  court  when 
Hon.  William  C.  Hasbrouck  was  trying  a  case 
which  Judge  Brown  defended  before  Judge  S.  B. 
Strong.  It  seemed  to  me  that  the  plaintiff  made 
out  a  clear  case,  and  that  the  trial  Judge  was  of 
the  same  opinion,  but  the  jury  promptly  returned 
a  verdict  of  "no  cause  of  action."  I  had  often 
heard  it  said  that  John  W.  Brown  was  almost 
omnipotent  with  Orange  County  juries,  and  it 
seemed  to  me  then,  though  only  a  youth,  from 
the  testimony  and  the  charge  of  the  Court,  that 
the  personality  of  his  counsel  was  all  the  defence 
the  defendant  had. 

While  a  law  student  I  made  it  a  point  to  attend 
as  often  as  possible  the  Sessions  of  Court  when 
held  in  Newburgh.  I  do  not  recall  any  that  was 
held  there  by  any  other  judge  during  that  time. 
It  v/as  interesting  to  watch  the  jury  while  Judge 
Brown  was  charging  them.  He  had  been  all  his 
professional  life  a  trial  lawyer,  and  when  charg- 
ing the  jury,  he  would  take  up  the  plaintiff's 
side,  and  presently  seemed  to  forget  that  he  was 
judf^e  and  not  counsel,  and  would  argue  the  case 
for  the  plaintiff,  and  suddenly  he  would  become 
conscious  of  that  fact,  and  would  take  up  the 
defendant's  case,  and  argue  that  just  as  ably, 
and  all  the  time  the  jury  were  watching  to  see 
which  way  he  leaned,  and  if  they  could  determine 
that  question,  the  side  the  jury  thought  he  favor- 
ed was  sure  of  a  verdict. 

41 


But  the  jury  did  not  always  guess  right.  My 
father  used  to  tell  of  one  occasion  when  he  was 
one  of  the  panel,  and  when  the  jury  retired,  he 
found  that  he  stood  alone.  The  case  being  an 
important  one  and  his  conviction  being  very 
strong,  he  stood  out,  and  after  a  day  and  a  half, 
the  judge  discharged  the  jury.  As  it  was  about 
noon  court  adjourned,  and  on  coming  out  of  the 
Court  House  Judge  Brown  took  father's  arm  and 
walked  down  the  street  with  him,  and  on  the 
way  asked  how  the  jury  stood.  He  was  answer- 
ed, "Eleven  to  one."  "Why,"  said  the  judge, 
"that  juror  must  be  a  very  obstinate  man.  I 
thought  I  charged  the  jury  so  strongly  that  I 
expected  a  verdict  for  the  plaintiff  in  a  few 
minutes.  Who  was  the  juror  who  stood  out?" 
Father  admitted  that  he  was  the  guilty  party. 
"You,"  said  Judge  Brown,  "why  I  always  con- 
sidered you  a  sensible  man."  "But,  Judge,  I  was 
the  only  one  that  stood  for  the  plaintiff." 

Judge  Brown  was  not  only  an  excellent  judge 
in  his  ruling  and  decisions,  but  transacted  busi- 
ness promptly,  and  never  permitted  trials  to 
drag  along.  There  v/as  one  member  of  the  bar, 
"of  great  bore  but  small  calibre,"  who  would 
exhaust  the  patience  of  Job  in  cross-examination 
of  a  witness.  This  was  to  Judge  Brown  almost 
unendurable.  Once  at  Goshen  this  counsel  had 
examined  a  witness  at  great  length  and  to  little 
purpose,  v/ith  a  long  pause  between  each  ques- 
tion, and  the  judge  would  ask,  "Are  you  through 

with   this   witness,    Mr.   ?"     "No,    your 

Honor,"  would  be  the  reply,  and  then  would 
come  a  question  that  had  been  asked  a  half 
dozen  times  before,  until  the  judge  broke  out, 

"You  are  through  with  this  witness,  Mr.  . 

You  are  through  with  him,  sir.  Witness  leave 
the  stand." 

This  storv  was  told  of  the  first  time  he  held 
Court  in  Westchester  County.  The  previous 
judges   had    been    very    easy,    and   the   bar   had 

42 


fallen  into  a  very  slip-shod  way  of  doing  busi- 
ness. Judge  Brown  on  taking  his  seat  empan- 
nelled  and  charged  the  Grand  Jury,  and  then 
called  the  Criminal  Docket  and  not  a  case  was 
ready.  He  then  called  the  Civil  Docket  with  the 
same  result.  The  judge  leaned  back  in  his  chair, 
and  the  talk  of  the  proverbial  "Dutch  Uncle" 
wasn't  a  circumstance  to  the  blistering  reproof 
that  the  bar  got  from  the  bench.  He  wound  up, 
after  stating  that  the  expense  to  the  county  of 
holding  the  court  was  about  three  hundred  dol- 
lars a  day,  by  notifying  the  District  Attorney 
that  when  he  held  court  there  again,  he  would, 
on  the  opening  of  court,  call  the  Criminal 
Docket,  and  if  the  State  was  not  prepared  in  any 
case,  he  would  discharge  the  defendant  on  his 
own  recognisance,  and  that  every  case  on  the 
Civil  Docket  would  be  tried  or  dismissed  when 
reached.  It  was  said  that  no  one  could  hire  a 
horse  or  man  at  the  county  seat  that  night  for 
love  or  money.  They  were  all  scouring  the 
county  in  search  of  witnesses  to  have  them  on 
hand  at  the  opening  of  court  next  morning. 
That  talk  surely  "speeded  up"  the  dispatch  of 
litigated   business  in  Westchester  County. 

The  writer  was  admitted  to  the  bar  at  the 
General  Term  at  Brooklyn  in  January,  1856. 
He  went  to  the  city  by  the  same  train  which 
carried  Judge  Brown.  A  serious  accident  at 
Spuyten  Duyvel  Bridge,  to  the  train  preceding 
ours,  prevented  our  getting  to  Brooklyn  until 
after  four  o'clock  p.  m.  Then  we  were  informed 
that  Judges  Strong  and  Rockwell  who  were  the 
other  judges,  had  adjourned  the  term  until  the 
next  Monday.  On  the  adjourned  day  Judges 
Brown  and  Rockwell  appeared,  but  Judge  Strong 
was  snowed  up  in  the  east  part  of  Long  Island. 
They  sent  on  to  New  York  and  borrowed  Judge 
E.  P.  Cowles,  and  appointed  a  committee  to 
examine  the  applicants  for  admission  to  the  bar, 
and  adjourned  sine  die.     Some  time  after,  I  took 

4a 


my  certificate  to  Judge  Brown's  office  for  his 
signature,  and  he  complained  bitterly  that  he  had 
nothing  to  do,  and  said  it  was  the  first  time  since 
he  was  admitted  to  the  bar  that  he  was  absolutely 
without  business.  But  it  was  ten  years  after 
before  he  retired  from  the  bench  he  so  ably 
adorned. 

Few  persons,  who  knew  Judge  Brown  only  as 
a  hard-headed,  hard-fighting  lawyer  of  rigid 
Presbyterian  principles,  suspected  the  tenderness 
of  feeling  that  hid  behind  his  unpromising 
exterior.  In  the  summer  of  1855  a  man  was 
tried  in  Newburgh  for  the  murder  of  his  wife, 
and,  in  spite  of  a  vigorous  defence  by  Judge  Mc- 
Kissock,  was  found  guilty  in  the  first  degree,  and 
that  mainly  on  the  testimony  of  his  own  seven- 
year-old  son.  When  the  judge  pronounced 
sentence  of  death  upon  him,  he  was  observed  to 
be  greatly  affected,  and  at  the  close,  broke  down 
in  a  paroxysm  of  tears.  It  was  the  first  time  I 
ever  heard  a  death  sentence  pronounced,  (and 
I  have  heard  but  one  since)  and  a  few  days  after, 
I  was  in  conversation  with  one  of  the  judges  of 
another  district,  and  related  the  circumstances 
and  added  that  I  was  told  that  it  was  the  first 
capital  case  that  Judge  Brown  had  tried.  That 
judge  told  me  that  he  had  tried  eleven  murder 
cases  in  which  verdicts  of  guilty  had  been  re- 
turned and  that  seven  of  the  defendants  had  been 
executed,  and  he  had  been  on  the  bench  only  two 
years  longer  than  Judge  Brown.  At  Judge 
Brown's  intercession  the  penalty  was  commuted 
to  imprisonment  for  life. 

I  understand  your  request  in  your  last  letter 
for  something  further  about  Judge  John  W. 
Brown  to  refer  to  his  personal  appearance.  He 
v/as  tall  with  no  superfluous  flesh,  but  well  pro- 
portioned, active  in  his  movements,  dignified  in 
his  manner  but  without  any  trace  of  stiffness,  or 
pomposity,  accurate  and  incisive  in  speech  and 
keen  in  repartee,  easy  to  approach  and  pleasant 

44 


in  conversation,  yet  he  could  hardly  be  termed 
affable.  I  can  not  say  much  of  his  attitude  at 
the  bar  as  I  saw  him  in  court  only  twice  before 
he  became  Judge,  but  I  knew  of  his  pov/er  as 
leader  of  the  bar.  As  a  judge  he  was  always 
dignified,  prompt  and  accurate  in  his  rulings,  and 
clear  and  impartial  in  his  charges  to  the  jury. 
He  was  not  only  a  hard  worker  but  one  who 
loved  to  work,  and  the  members  of  his  profession 
had  unbounded  confidence,  not  only  in  his  ability, 
but  also  in  his  integrity,  and  that  confidence  was 
never  abused. 

Judge  Brown  v/as  not  only  a  hard  worker  but 
he  was  also  diligent  in  collecting  the  rewards  of 
his  labors,  and  was  equally  diligent  and  prudent 
in  investing  them.  I  remember  hearing  one 
active  member  of  the  Newburgh  bar  remark 
that  only  death,  or  a  severe  fit  of  sickness,  would 
keep  Judge  Brown  away  from  his  office  on  April 
ist,  the  day  the  interest  on  his  investments  were 
made  payable.  In  him  was  the  proverb  of  Solo- 
mon verified:  "Seest  thou  a  man  diligent  in  his 
business!  He  shall  stand  before  kings.  He 
shall  not  stand  before  mean  men." 

I  think  the  oil  painting  of  him  which  hangs  in 
the  Court  of  Appeals  is  the  best  likeness  of  him 
that  I  have  ever  seen,  but  the  cut  which  appears 
on  page  158  of  Ruttenber's  "Newburgh"  is  very 
good. 

ADDENDA    liV    W.   C.   A. 

In  the  foregoing  sketch  Mr.  Graham  has 
referred  to  the  Polly  Bodine  case.  It  was  one 
of  Judge  Brown's  greatest  forensic  triumphs. 
His  summing  up  was  said  to  be  masterly.  In 
closing  it  he  is  reported  to  have  said  to  the  jurors 
something  like  this: 

"And  now,  gentlemen,  if  you  shall  find  a 
verdict  against  the  accused,  then,  in  days  to 
come,  when  I  meet  you,  and  demand  to  know, 
^s    I  shall,   how  you  overcame  the   presumption 

45 


of  innocence  to  which  the  accused  is  entitled  I 
shall  expect  you,  each  one  of  you,  to  be  prepared 
to  give  me  full  and  explicit  reasons  for  your 
verdict — for  a  woman's  life  is  at  stake." 

John  W.  Brown  was  a  man  of  unusual  force 
of  intellect  and  of  character.  His  ability  and 
integrity  were  not  only  conspicuous  but  were 
felt,  almost  instinctively,  by  every  one  who  had 
any  business  transactions  with  him.  He  made 
a  very  deep  impression  upon  the  men  of  his  own 
generation  and  that  impression  has  not  yet  faded 
out  entirely,  which  is  saying  much  for  a  lawyer's 
influence,  for  usually  when  a  member  of  that 
profession  "rests  from  his  labors"  his  good  works 
are  speedily  forgotten. 

He  was  a  ready  man,  full  of  resources  and 
prompt  and  unhesitating  in  using  them.  One 
instance  occurs  to  me.  In  the  days  when 
"Justices  of  the  Sessions"  sat  with  the  Supreme 
Court  Justice  in  every  criminal  case  the  two 
"Side  Judges"  in  Dutchess  County  conspired  to 
take  Judge  Brown  down  a  peg  or  two;  so  when 
the  District  Attorney  was  urging  the  admissibil- 
ity of  certain  evidence  and  the  prisoner's  counsel 
was  objecting  vigorously  one  of  the  Session 
Justices  leaned  over  the  bench  and  said  to  the 

prisoner's    lawyer:     "Mr.    X ,    we   think 

that  evidence  is  entirely  proper  and  shall  admit 
it."  Judge  Brown  looked  around  at  him  and 
merely  said,  "W-h-a-t !"  The  Side  Judge  replied, 
"You  needn't  be  uppish  about  it.  Judge  Brown. 
We  are  the  majority  of  this  court  and  have  de- 
cided to  admit  the  evidence."  His  co-conspirator 
nodded  assent.  Judge  Brown's  high  white  silk 
hat  stood  on  the  bench  near  him  (he  always  wore 
a  white  one  in  summer)  and  reaching  for  it  he 
put  it  on  and  started  for  the  door,  remarking  in 
his  severest  manner — (which  was  <very  severe) 
— "Perhaps  you  think  you  can  run  this  Court 
without  my  help."  Instantly  the  question  was 
withdrawn    vociferously,    as    likewise    was    the 


4« 


objection  and  the  judge  returned  to  his  seat 
remarking  with  considerable  asperity,  "Very 
well  then ;  I  think  that  the  proceedings  here  will 
be  conducted  without  further  foolish  interrup- 
tions." 

I  might  say  that  an  incident  somewhat  similar 
to  the  foregoing  occurred  in  the  Orange  County 
Court  when  Duryea  was  County  Judge.  The 
evidence  offered  was  expected  to  be  of  a  particu- 
larly indelicate  character.  There  were  many 
itching  ears  in  the  audience — perhaps  some  on 
the  bench — waiting  to  hear  that  very  testimony. 
Duryea  ruled  it  out  as  irrelevant.  The  Session 
Justices  overruled  him  and  the  evidence  was 
introduced. 

The  obituary  notice  which  Judge  Brown  wrote 
regarding  Judge  McKissock,  which  is  printed  in 
another  part  of  this  book,  gives  a  clearer  view  of 
Brown  than  a  dozen  pages  of  description  could. 

His  literary  style,  his  manner  of  expressing 
himself,  whether  in  writing  or  orally,  his  ideals, 
his  point  of  view  regarding  some  of  the  most 
important  questions  of  life,  and  the  unflinching 
truthfulness  which  led  him  to  speak  of  the  faults 
of  his  dead  friend  all  shine  out  clearly  in  that 
article.  That  he  failed  to  observe  the  rule, 
"De  mortuis  nil  nisi  bonum,"  was  equally 
characteristic  of  him.  He  seems  never  to  have 
subscribed  to  the  proposition  that  "the  truth 
should  not  be  spoken  at  all  times."  This  sort, 
or  quality  of  outspokenness  may  or  may  not  be 
due  to  a  lack  of  tact  but  one  who  displays  it  is 
sure  to  be  thought  lacking  in  that  rarest  of  the 
Christian  p;races. 

My  residence  was  very  near  Judc;e  Brown's 
durinp^  the  l?st  three  or  four  years  of  his  life  and 
I  came  to  know  him  well  and  can  testify  that  he 
was  a  kind  and  helpful  neighbor  and  a  wise 
adviser  even  in  matters  outside  of  his  professional 
lines.  Mr.  Grnham  has  said,  in  the  article  which 
accompanies    this    that    Judge    Brown    loved    to 

47 


work.  In  that  he  is  mistaken.  The  judge  once 
said  to  me  that  he  dishked  to  work.  He  stated  it 
in  this  way:  "It  was  always  hard  for  me  to 
work.  I  had  to  drive  myself  to  it.  Now  there 
is  Brewster — he  doesn't  deserve  any  credit  for 
working;  he  would  rather  work  than  be  idle." 
I  told  Brewster,  years  afterwards,  of  this  conver- 
sation and  his  reply  was,  "How  little  we  really 
know  about  those  who  stand  nearest  to  us.  I 
always  disliked  to  work — worse  than  Brown 
ever  did — and  I  do  yet.  During  the  many  years 
I  was  a  clerk  in  his  office  if  he  had  known  me  as 
well  as  he  thought  he  did  he  never  would  have 
said  that  to  you,  or  to  anybody." 

As  Judge  Brown  says  of  McKissock,  so  I  will 
say  of  him,  "faults  he  doubtless  had" — but  as  to 
these  I  cannot  speak  from  personal  knowledge. 
The  one  quality  in  him  which  I  observed  which 
most  resembled  a  fault  was  that  he  seemed  to  me 
to  be  entirely  destitute  of  the  sense  of  humor. 
He  was  intensely  serious  and  in  earnest  all  the 
time — a  stern,  self-reliant,  isolated  man. 

In  his  old  age,  after  he  had  retired  from  the 
bench,  an  effort  was  made  to  bond  the  City  of 
Newburgh  in  aid  of  a  railroad  which  was  intend- 
ed— (or  proposed) —  to  be  built  from  Newburgh 
back  into  the  western  part  of  the  county.  A 
public  meeting  was  held  at  People's  Hall  to 
discuss  the  proposition.  The  hall  seated  a  thou- 
sand to  twelve  hundred  people  and  it  was  filled. 
The  audience  had  been  packed  with  claquers  in 
favor  of  bonding  the  city.  It  was  understood 
that  Judge  Brown  would  speak  in  opposition  to 
the  scheme.  When  he  came  forward  from  his 
seat  at  the  back  of  the  stage  and  essayed  to  speak 
bedlam  broke  loose.  Hoots,  catcalls,  booings  and 
all  manner  of  hideous  noises  filled  the  hall. 
Judge  Brown  said  a  few  words  which  nobody 
heard ;  it  is  doubtful  if  he  heard  them  himself. 
Then  he  v/alked  back  towards  the  seat  he  had  iust 
vacated    and    the    crowd    quieted    down.     They 

48 


thought  they  had  cowed  the  old  gentleman  and 
that  he  was  retreating — but  they  didn't  know 
John  W.  Brown,  He  deliberately  dragged  his 
chair  forward  to  the  front  of  the  stage  and  seated 
himself  on  it  with  the  remark,  "Well,  I  can  sit 
as  long  as  you  can  holler."  The  audience  con- 
cluded to  hear  his  speech  and  he  proceeded  to 
give  the  bonding  scheme  and  the  men  who  were 
promoting  it  a  dressing  out  that  no  one  who 
heard  it  has  ever  forgotten. 

He  began  by  saying  something  like  this:  "I 
am  an  old  man,  about  to  die,  and  I  do  not  reside 
in  this  city,  but  I  felt  it  my  duty  to  come  here 
tonight  to  try  to  save  my  neighbors  and 
friends  and  former  clients  residing  here  from  the 
burden  which  would  be  put  upon  them  and  their 
children  and  their  children's  children  by  the 
adoption  of  this  wicked  scheme."  And  he  went 
on  to  discuss  the  project  and  the  individuals  v/ho 
were  back  of  it,  without  fear  or  favor.  It  would, 
not  be  possible  to  say  that  this  speech  defeated 
the  scheme  but  it  had  great  weight  with  the 
people  and  the  bonding  project  was  defeated ; 
the  city  was  not  bonded. 

Judge  Brown  seems  to  have  been  about 
twenty-five  years  old  when,  in  1822,  he  was 
admitted  to  the  practice  of  the  law.  The  period 
of  study  then  required  was  extremely  long. 
Prior  to  his  admission  he  had  studied  in  the  office 
of  Fisk  &  Case  (Jonathan  Fisk  and  Walter  Case) 
and  after  Mr.  Fisk  removed  to  New  York  City 
about  1815  he  continued  in  the  office  of  Mr.  Case 
until  he  was  admitted  to  the  bar.  His  rise  in  his 
chosen  profession  was  rapid.  In  the  trial  of 
cases  he  was  a  forceful  and  convincing  advocate; 
in  his  office  he  was  a  learned,  clear  and  far-sight- 
ed counsellor.  No  client  ever  suffered  by  reason 
of  committinpj  his  interests  to  the  keeping  of 
John  W.  Brown  no  matter  how  able  or  famous 
the  opposing  attorney  might  be.  In  his  early 
manhood  he  took  an  interest  in  military  affairs 


4!t 


and  followed  it  up  with  his  usual  thoroughness 
so  that  he  finally  became — in  1824 — the  Colonel 
of  the  militia  of  this  district.  In  1832  and  again 
in  1834  he  was  elected  to  represent  this  district 
in  the  United  States  Congress.  In  1849  he  was 
elected  a  Justice  of  the  Supreme  Court  and  that 
office  he  continued  to  hold  for  sixteen  years  or 
two  terms — the  term  then  running  for  eight 
years. 

At  the  expiration  of  his  second  term — January 
I,  1866 — he  retired  to  private  life  and  refused  to 
accept  professional  employment  though  he  con- 
tinued to  spend  a  few  hours  in  his  office  each  day 
until  nearly  the  time  of  his  death.  He  left  two 
sons  and  several  daughters.  One  of  the  sons, 
Hon.  Charles  F.  Brown,  has  surpassed  his  father's 
fame  as  a  jurist,  and  has  rivaled  it  as  a  lawyer. 


ISAAC  R.  VAN  DUZER. 
Died  November  27,  1841. 

It  is  much  to  be  regretted  that  so  few  details 
in  regard  to  Mr.  Van  Duzer's  life  and  work  have 
come  down  to  our  time.  By  universal  consent 
he  is  ranked  among  the  most  brilliant  men  who 
ever  practiced  law  in  this  county. 

His  death  at  the  comparatively  early  age  of 
thirty-nine  years  cut  off,  in  mid-career,  a  life 
of  very  great  promise.  He  was  a  member  of 
Assembly  in  1832  and  again  in  1833  and  District 
Attorney  of  this  county  from  1829  to  1835. 

He  was  once  a  candidate  for  Congress  but  was 
defeated.  Such  is  the  brief  record  of  his  public 
services.  As  a  member  of  the  Assembly,  he  pro- 
duced such  a  favorable  and  lasting  impression 
upon  his  fellows  that  one  of  them  spoke  of  him, 
thirty  years  later,  as  a  man  of  surpassing  ability 
and  brilliance.     It  is  told  of  him  that  he  frequent- 

60 


ISAAC     K      VAN     IMZIOK 


ly  dictated  complicated  legal  documents  to  two 
amanuenses  at  the  same  time,  and  that  he 
often  drew  indictments,  (which  then  had  to  be 
drawn  with  great  care),  in  the  public  room  of 
the  hotel  in  the  midst  of  the  greatest  confusion 
and  distracting  incidents.  It  is  also  known  that 
in  his  private  practice  he  was  pitted  against  the 
ablest  men  at  our  bar. 

Mr.  Van  Duzer  married  a  sister  of  David  F. 
Gedney  which  resulted  in  a  certain  degree  of 
intimacy  between  the  two  families  and  Gedney 
once  spoke  of  his  pleasant  memories  of  a  Christ- 
mas dinner  he  had  taken  years  before  at  the  Van 
Duzer  homestead  when  all  the  Van  Duzers  were 
present.  It  was  a  large  family  I  think,  and 
Judge  Gedney  said  he  thought  that  taken  all  in 
all  they  were  the  finest  looking  set  of  people  he 
had  ever  sat  at  table  with.  He  spoke  particularly 
of  the  attractiveness  of  their  hair  which  was,  as 
he  described  it,  not  curly  but  wavy  and  very 
abundant. 

The  accompanying  portrait  of  Mr.  Van  Duzer 
fully  justifies  Judge  Gedney's  opinion  as  far  as 
this  member  of  the  family  is  concerned. 

The  Van  Duzer  homestead  was  in  the  Town 
of  Cornwall  and  there  the  subject  of  this  sketch 
was  born  on  May  8th,  1802.  He  was  licensed 
in  the  year  1823  and  forthwith  opened  an  office 
in  the  Village  of  Canterbury. 

With  his  brilliant  gifts  he  naturally  found  his 
way  to  a  larger  place  and  had  his  health  not  failed 
he  would  have  been  constrained  ultimately  to 
seek  the  wider  field  afforded  by  the  metropolis. 

In  Clark  and  Ruttenber's  History  of  the 
County  I  find  a  sketch  of  Mr.  Van  Duzer  which 
reads  as  though  it  had  been  written  by  Judge 
Gedney — his  brother-in-law.  I  quote  from  it  that 
which  follows :  "The  general  impression  of  those 
now  living  who  were  brought  into  personal 
contact  with  him  is  that  he  was  one  of  the  most 
impressive  and  magnetic  men  of  his  day;  that  he 

61 


was  an  orator  of  rare  powers  of  eloquence  and 
logic  and  gifted  with  a  magnificent  voice." 


DAVID  F.  GEDNEY. 
By  Tristram  Coffin  of  the  Dutchess  County  Bar. 

I  studied  law  in  Goshen  in  the  years  1862-3  ^^ 
the  office  of  the  late  Joseph  W.  Gott,  an  excellent 
lawyer  of  that  period.  A  few  days  after  my 
arrival  in  the  village,  a  trial  term  of  the  Supreme 
Court  was  held  at  the  County  Court  House  there, 
Justice  James  Emott  of  Poughkeepsie  presiding. 
It  was  my  first  experience  in  attending  court, 
and  I  was  much  interested  in  all  that  occurred. 
Every  bench  in  the  spacious  room  was  filled  with 
people.  The  chairs  of  the  bar  enclosure  were 
also  soon  taken  by  lawyers  from  all  sections  of 
Orange  County,  quite  a  number  of  whom  bore 
the  outward  marks  of  superior  intelligence  and 
intellectual  capacity.  The  one  among  them  who 
particularly  attracted  my  attention  was  not  in 
my  estimation  in  the  last  named  select  class. 
Neither  did  I  regard  him  to  my  satisfaction  as 
one  of  the  other  attorneys.  Indeed  I  found  my- 
self doubting  whether  he  had  the  right  to  enter 
that  exclusive  place.  He  was  evidently  about 
forty  years  of  age,  of  medium  height  and  weight, 
simply  but  faultlessly  dressed,  and  acted  the  part 
of  a  quiet,  dignified  gentleman.  The  apparent 
enigma  was  contained  in  his  remarkable  head. 
His  brow  retreated  so  abruptly  that  there  seemed 
to  be  no  room  for  the  grey  matter  of  a  fine  brain 
or  for  scarcely  any  frontal  brain  above  the  loca- 
tion of  the  perceptive  faculties.  His  back  head 
was  large  and  full.  My  knowledge  of  phrenology 
certainly  must  have  been  very  slight  or  the 
science  itself  at  fault  in  this  instance  for  I  re- 
member distinctly  that  mentally  I  relegated  him 
to  a  place  far  down  the  scale,  as  one  to  whom 

62 


I  i.w  II I  1'.  <;i:i)Nj;v 


Nature  had  failed  to  allot  even  the  average 
amount  of  understanding. 

My  attention  was  soon  diverted  to  the  court 
business,  the  making  of  motions,  the  call  of  the 
calendar,  etc.  Later  in  the  day  when  an  import- 
ant case  was  brought  to  trial,  the  man  in  question 
was  seated  near  some  lawyers  at  one  of  the  tables 
in  front  of  the  jury.  My  only  thought  at  the  time 
was  that  he  must  be  one  of  the  parties  interested 
in  the  suit,  and  this  view  was  seemingly  con- 
firmed by  several  apparent  consultations  between 
him  and  the  active  attorney  who  opened  the  case 
for  the  plaintiff  and  examined  his  witnesses.  In 
the  summing  up  a  white-haired  lawyer  who 
proved  to  be  ex-Judge  McKissock,  of  Newburgh, 
made  a  very  able  plea  for  the  defendant's  side, 
concluding  with  a  caution  to  the  members  of  the 
jury  not  to  allow  their  judgment  to  be  unduly 
swayed  by  the  eloquence  of  his  "friend  on  the 
other  side." 

Imagine  my  surprise  when  the  gentleman  with 
the  strangely  shaped  head  quietly  rose  and  began 
to  address  the  jury  as  the  senior  counsel  for  the 
plaintiff!  At  first  his  utterance  was  very  slow 
and  rather  loud,  and  there  appeared  to  be  evi- 
dence of  some  embarrassment  on  his  part.  This, 
however,  disappeared  as  his  mind  gradually  cast 
aside  the  fetters  that  held  it  in  temporary  abey- 
ance; his  deep  rich  voice  assumed  a  natural  tone; 
he  soon  appeared  to  forget  himself  and  his  sur- 
roundings, and  in  the  absolute  silence  of  the 
multitude,  with  every  eye  upon  him  and  every 
ear  at  attention,  he  proceeded  to  deliver  one  of 
the  finest  forensic  addresses  that  it  has  ever  been 
my  privilege  and  delight  to  hear.  Presently  I 
observed  what  had  escaped  my  attention  before, 
that  his  face  was  one  of  much  strength,  every 
feature  plainly  indicating  it.  His  small  eyes 
which  had  seemed  so  ordinary,  now,  with  pupils 
dilated,  shone  brightly  from  their  deep  settings 
and  his  moist  face  flushed  as  his  mind,  working 


at  its  maximum  speed,  taxed  his  well  guarded 
voice  to  its  full  capacity  to  keep  pace  with  it. 
He  did  not  speak  rapidly  but  there  was  no  hesi- 
tation and  every  word  was  well  chosen  and 
weighty  with  meaning.  The  analysis  of  the 
foundation  facts  and  points  of  law,  the  strength 
and  weakness  of  the  testimony  of  the  various 
witnesses  pro  and  con,  vivid  illustrations  and  apt 
and  thrilling  quotations  from  renowned  authors, 
all  came  steadily  forth  in  a  well  articulated  and 
thoroughly  supported  volume  that  was  irresisti- 
ble in  its  convincing  power.  It  was  now  plainly 
apparent  why  the  veteran  and  talented  Mc- 
Kissock  spoke  his  warning  words  to  the  jury, 
for  the  cause  of  his  client  surely  needed  all  the 
help  it  could  obtain  from  any  source.  Nearing 
the  end,  his  voice  grew  low  and  more  measured, 
his  manner  more  quiet,  and  in  words  not  too 
many  or  too  few,  he  closed  and  deliberately 
resumed  his  seat.  Turning  to  a  gentleman 
sitting  beside  me  I  asked  if  he  knew  the  name  of 
the  speaker.  His  whispered  reply  was — "Judge 
Gedney."  I  do  not  remember  which  party  was 
successful,  but  I  have  little  doubt  that  the  verdict 
was  for  the  plaintiff,  else  I  should  surely  recall 
what  would  have  been  in  my  opinion  at  that 
time,  a  marked  and  not  to  be  forgotten  instance 
of  the  miscarriage  of  justice ! 

During  my  stay  in  Goshen  I  heard  the  Judge 
speak  a  number  of  times,  and  always  with 
admiration,  but  throughout  all  the  intervening 
years  that  remarkable  address  has  come  first  to 
my  memory  when  I  have  thought  of  him.  I 
have  no  doubt  that  it  was  one  of  his  finest  efforts. 
It  is  difficult  to  imagine  how  it  could  have  been 
improved  either  in  substance  or  in  delivery. 
Afterwards,  I  heard  all  the  most  prominent 
speakers  among  the  lawyers  of  the  Orange 
County  bar  of  that  day  (and  there  were  some 
who  possessed  fine  ability  in  that  respect),  but 
in  my  estimation  not  one  of  them  v/as  his  equal, 

64 


and  I  doubt  whether  either  one  of  the  famous 
quartette — Duer,  Hoffman,  Van  Duzer  and 
Wilkin — of  the  preceding  generation,  surpassed 
him. 

In  time  I  became  somewhat  acquainted  with 
the  judge  and  still  recall  the  purport  of  nearly 
all  the  conversations  I  held  with  him.  This  fact 
is  evidence  as  to  the  impression  he  made  upon 
me.  A  few  among  these  memories,  which  recur 
to  me  as  I  write,  may  perhaps  not  be  considered 
out  of  place  in  this  article. 

One  of  his  statements  was  that  he  never  began 
to  address  a  jury  or  other  audience  without  feel- 
ing quite  nervous  and  incapable  of  doing  justice 
to  his  subject,  and  that  he  only  overcame  it  by 
speaking  at  the  outset  in  a  strong  voice  and  very 
deliberately  until  he  gained  the  proper  poise. 
He  said  that  Secretary  of  State  William  H. 
Seward,  who  was  a  distinguished  speaker,  once 
told  him  that  his  experience  was  very  similar. 

For  a  few  weeks  I  acted  as  the  editor  of  the 
Goshen  Democrat,  a  Republican  paper  at  the 
request  of  Mr.  Charles  Meade,  then  its  owner  and 
editor,  during  his  absence  on  his  summer  vacation. 
It  was  just  before  the  battle  of  Gettysburg,  and 
the  loyal  people  of  the  entire  North  were  in  a  state 
of  great  excitement  and  anxiety.  Strange  as  it 
may  now  appear,  it  is  a  fact  that  the  hills  and 
valleys  of  Orange  County  were  then  infested  by 
many  human  copperheads,  and  my  longest 
editorial  was  devoted  to  them  as  connected  with 
the  dire  emergency  then  at  hand — the  great  peril 
that  over-shadowed  the  Union  cause  by  reason  of 
Lee's  invasion.  I  had  written  the  article  hastily 
but  warmly,  and  used  some  forceful  quotations. 
Soon  after  the  publication  of  the  paper  in  which 
the  article  appeared,  I  was  much  gratified  by 
receiving  a  call  from  the  judge  in  the  course  of 
which  he  remarked  that  it  was  one  of  his  many 
regrets  that  he  could  not  recall  more  readily  and 
fully  the  fine  passages  he  came  across  in  his  read- 

66 


ing,  when  he  needed  them  in  speaking.  He 
seemed  surprised  when  I  smilingly  assured  him 
that  I  thought  he  was  greatly  mistaken;  that  it 
appeared  to  me  that  his  memory  served  him 
remarkably  well  in  that  respect.  It  was  but  one 
of  many  evidences  that  existed  of  the  innate 
modesty  of  the  man. 

A  student  in  one  of  the  offices,  upon  finding  in 
the  attic  of  the  building  a  lot  of  French  novels 
of  pronounced  yellow  character,  fearing  that  he 
might  be  tempted  to  read  them,  and  without 
ascertaining  to  whom  they  belonged,  burned 
them  to  ashes  in  the  office  stove.  I  happened  to 
be  present  among  a  small  group  of  men,  includ- 
ing the  judge,  when  the  matter  was  mentioned, 
and  well  remember  how  all  possible  criticism  was 
forestalled  by  his  emphatic  approval  of  the  really 
questionable  act. 

Judge  Gedney  was  a  constant  and  careful 
reader  of  the  best  literature,  classical  and  other- 
wise. That  propensity,  viewed  in  connection 
with  his  love  for  his  home  life  (which  was  con- 
genial and  happy)  accentuated  by  a  certain 
degree  of  apparent  mental  and  physical  indol- 
ence, kept  him  from  devoting  sufficient  time  and 
effort  to  his  profession  to  enable  him  to  build  up 
a  large  practice.  It  was  very  difficult  for  him  to 
become  a  steady  worker,  and  he  shrank  from 
engaging  in  any  of  the  ordinary  ways  of  influenc- 
ing business  to  come  to  his  office.  It  had  to 
reach  him  unsought  or  go  elsewhere.  It  may 
also  be  said  that  his  courtly  and  refined  manners 
and  address  were  entirely  devoid  of  the  "Hail 
fellow  well  met"  style,  the  exercise  of  which  is 
supposed  to  render  its  possessor  popular  with  the 
average  class  of  people. 

Had  he  chosen  to  have  formed  a  partnership 
with  an  affable,  competent  and  industrious  office 
lawyer,  it  would  doubtless  have  led  to  his  far 
more  frequent  appearance  as  an  advocate  in 
court.       His  rare  ability  would  then  have  been 

66 


developed  more  fully  and  would  have  been  more 
generally  recognized  and  appreciated.  He  was 
well  qualified  by  nature  and  cultivation  to  have 
attained  marked  success,  not  only  as  a  court 
lawyer,  but  as  an  author,  a  clergyman,  or  public 
lecturer. 

Such  are  my  principal  memories  of  David  F. 
Gedney.  I  knew  him  for  a  brief  period  more 
than  fifty  years  ago,  when  he  was  in  the  prime  of 
his  life.  Other  and  more  familiar  pens  than 
mine  must  be  enlisted  if  full  justice  is  done  him 
and  his  career.  To  me  he  will  always  stand  out 
as  the  most  gifted  man  at  that  distant  day  among 
the  lawyers  of  the  historic  village  of  Goshen  and 
of  the  grand  old  County  of  Orange.  Those  who 
knew  him  best  and  properly  valued  his  rare 
qualities  of  mind  and  inspired  strength  and 
facility  of  expression,  saw  him  with  keen  regret, 
go  through  life  on  a  range  far  below  that  which 
he  was  capable  of  attaining.  There  was  a  cluster 
of  pure  mental  diamonds  in  his  brain,  very  few 
of  which  were  ever  seen  to  sparkle,  and  all  were 
finally  buried  with  him  under  the  sod  without 
having  been  accorded  the  full  opportunity  right- 
fully due  them  to  display  their  brilliant  qualities. 

Netv  York,  May,   1917. 

ADDENDA    BY  W.   C.   A. 

My  own  first  impressions  of  Judge  Gedney 
were  similar  to  those  of  Mr.  Coffin.  I  had  heard 
most  favorable  reports  of  him  but  had  never 
seen  him  until  I  went  to  his  office  one  summer 
morning  in  the  year  1864  to  ask  if  he  would 
receive  me  as  a  student.  I  recall  a  fcelinf^  of 
surprise  that  one  so  celebrated  as  an  advocate 
could  be  so  unprepossessing  in  appearance.  But 
his  courtly  manners  and  pleasant  voice 
coupled  with  the  kindness  with  which  he  met 
me  soon  won  my  admiration  and  all  thought  as 
to  his  appearance  was  banished. 

67 


I  remained  in  his  office  as  a  student  for  nearly 
a  year  and  a  half  and  a  more  considerate  and 
agreeable  preceptor  could  not  have  been  found. 
He  treated  me  with  as  much  courtesy  as  though 
I  had  been  his  equal  in  years  and  in  professional 
standing  and  it  is  not  to  be  wondered  at  that  I 
came  to  regard  him  with  sincere  affection. 

He  was  in  some  respects  unlike  any  other 
member  of  the  profession  in  this  county  at  that 
time.  He  seemed  to  be  made  of  finer  material. 
Delicate  and  sensitive  to  a  fault  he  could  drive 
himself  to  face  the  rough  and  tumble  of  litigated 
practice  without  a  sign  of  reluctance.  But  he 
infinitely  preferred  the  paths  of  peace. 

He  loved  music  and  pictures  and  flowers  "and 
everything  that  pretty  is"  and  especially  books. 

His  susceptibility  to  music  was  remarkable. 
I  recall  a  chance  meeting  of  five  or  six  young 
people  at  his  house  one  summer  evening.  One 
of  the  number,  (a  Miss  Bradish),  had  a  lovely 
voice  and  in  the  gloaming  she  played  and  sang 
for  half  an  hour  or  more,  rendering  among  other 
songs  a  number  of  plaintive  Scotch  ballads.  The 
sound  of  that  music  is  in  my  ears  yet.  It  was 
exquisite.  The  room  was  in  almost  total  dark- 
ness. The  next  morning  the  judge  said  to  me 
that  it  was  fortunate  we  were  sitting  in  a  darken- 
ed room  the  preceding  evening  for  the  tears  he 
shed  over  those  Scotch  ballads  would  have  dis- 
graced him  if  they  had  been  seen.  Frequently 
he  would  seat  himself  at  the  piano  and  "impro- 
vise" delightfully. 

As  a  reader  he  was  omnivorous.  He  could 
appreciate  and  enjoy  anything  from  Bentham, 
on  Jurisprudence,  to  "The  Arabian  Nights."  He 
read  French  as  easily  as  though  it  had  been  his 
mother  tongue,  being  master  even  of  the  black- 
letter  French.  He  had  some  familiarity  with  the 
Italian  language  also.  But  in  mathematics — 
especially  in  mixed  mathematics — he  was  sadly 
deficient.     He  said  to  me  once  that  he  lacked  the 

68 


arithmetical  instinct :  that  he  could  not  add  up 
a  column  of  figures  with  any  confidence  that  he 
would  reach  a  correct  result.  But  he  added,  "I 
can  beat  Charley  Winfield.  He  is  worse  than 
I  am." 

Judge  Barnard  once  said  to  me  "that  Gedney 
is  a  most  remarkable  man.  When  he  is  counsel 
in  a  cause  he  will  sit  there  with  his  eyes  shut 
until  you  might  think  he  was  dead  except  that 
occasionally  his  foot  will  wiggle  a  little  and  once 
in  a  great  while  he  will  whisper  a  word  or  two 
to  the  lav/yer  who  is  trying  the  case.  But  when 
it  comes  time  for  him  to  sum  up  he  will  address 
the  jury  for  an  hour  or  two  or  three  as  the  case 
may  demand  and  he  won't  miss  a  point  as  big  as 
a  humming-bird's  eye." 

In  speaking  to  a  jury — or  to  a  general  audience 
— Judge  Gedney  never  shouted  and  never  made 
violent  gestures.  When  he  wanted  to  be  unusu- 
ally impressive  he  would  drop  his  voice  to  a 
lower  tone  and  speak  very  deliberately.  The 
effect  was  magical.  The  entire  audience  would 
fairly  hold  their  breath  to  listen.  One  of  the 
sources  of  his  popularity  as  a  speaker  was  his 
unusual  power  of  arrangement.  He  would  state 
the  facts  or  points  of  a  very  complicated  situation 
in  such  a  simple  and  clean-cut  way — so  free  from 
involutions  and  complications — that  every  listen- 
er could  follow  him  without  any  effort.  It  was 
a  pleasure — a  delight  even — to  listen  to  him. 
I  think  I  never  knew  him  to  have  to  say  "I 
omitted  to  mention  this  in  its  proper  place." 
When  he  had  finished  the  discussion  of  one 
branch  of  his  case  he  was  through  with  it  and 
it  was  presented  in  such  a  way  that  it  needed  no 
furtlier  words  from  him  to  convey  fully  and  pre- 
cisely the  view  he  wished  his  hearers  to  take. 
In  other  words  his  arguments  were  like  his 
sentences  simply  perfect  in  their  arrangement. 
All  this  was  accomplished  without  the  slightest 
appearance  of  effort  or  preparation  on  his  part. 

60 


"Charley"  Winfield  once  said  to  me — after  he 
had  removed  from  the  county  and  was  practicing 
in  New  York  City — that  he  regarded  "Dave" 
Gedney  as  the  most  remarkable  man  in  some 
respects  that  he  had  ever  known.  Said  Winfield, 
"I  always  liked  to  have  a  little  time  for  preparing 
to  sum  up.  I  usually  tried  to  get  the  noon  recess 
for  that  purpose  or  even  an  adjournment  over 
night.  But  it  never  seemed  to  make  any  differ- 
ence with  Gedney.  I  have  sent  men  to  talk  with 
him  during  a  recess  and  to  keep  him  so  occupied 
that  he  would  not  be  able  to  make  any  prepara- 
tion for  his  speech — but  it  made  no  difference. 
He  spoke  just  as  well,  just  as  smoothly  and  with 
as  perfect  an  arrangement  of  his  arguments  as 
though  he  had  had  any  amount  of  time  for 
preparation." 

One  particular  in  which  Judge  Gedney  excelled 
was  in  his  power  to  say  caustic  things  in  a  quiet 
way  and  in  very  few  words.  For  example :  An 
attorney  whom  he  did  not  like  or  trust  was 
summing  up  a  case  for  the  defendant.  Gedney 
was  to  follow  him  for  the  plaintiff.  The  defend- 
ant's attorney  in  closing  his  argument  said  a 
whole  lot  of  things  about  the  eloquence  of  the 
gentleman  who  was  to  follow  him — that  the  jury 
must  be  on  their  guard,  etc.,  etc.  Gedney  quietly 
remarked  as  he  opened  his  address,  "I  feel  that 
I  have  been  besmeared  and  besmirched  by  these 
hypocritical  compliments." 

One  summer  afternoon  half  a  dozen  lawyers, — 
Gedney  among  them — had  gathered,  as  they 
frequently  did,  in  front  of  Champion's  office. 
Easy  chairs  had  been  brought  out  and  everything 
was  going  as  "merry  as  a  marriage  bell."  The 
subject  under  discussion  was  the  "Cheechunk 
Ditch"  case — then  a  matter  of  great  importance. 
Presently  William  F.  Sharpe  joined  the  party. 
At  that  time  he  was  very  diligently  courting  the 
lovely  woman  who  soon  after  became  his — second 
— wife.     As  she  was  many  years  his  junior  he 

60 


was  extremely  sensitive  just  then  about  his  age. 
Something  led  him  to  say  petulantly,  "Well  prob- 
ably Dave  Gedney  can  tell  us  all  about  this;  he 
knows  all  about  everything."  Gedney  quietly 
remarked,  "It  would  be  far  more  interesting  to 
hear  Mr.  Sharpe  tell  what  LaFayette  said  to  him 
on  his  second  visit  to  this  country."  Sharpe  was 
"up  in  the  air"  at  once,  and  lost  his  temper  com- 
pletely. He  had  no  further  interest  in  the 
"Cheechunk  Ditch"  and  soon  started  for  home. 

In  a  case — or  batch  of  cases — where  Mr.  Gott 
represented  the  plaintiffs  and  Judge  Gedney  the 
defendant  there  had  been  some  talk  of  a  com- 
promise. Finally  Mr.  Gott  named  a  sum — a  big 
one — for  which  his  clients  would  settle.  Gedney 
replied  with  the  suavity  of  a  Chesterfield,  "Mr. 
Gott,  my  client  would  prefer  that  his  estate 
should  not  be  administered  on  before  he  is  dead." 

In  a  very  hotly  contested  murder  case  Gedney 
was  associated  with  the  District  Attorney  and 
was  called  upon  of  course  to  make  the  closing 
appeal  to  the  jury.  One  of  the  witnesses  for  the 
accused  was  a  man  named  Price  and  the  testi- 
mony he  gave  was  important.  Gedney  thought 
it  necessary  to  break  down  this  testimony  if 
possible  and  he  spoke  with  some  acrimony  of 
the  ease  with  which  such  evidence  could  be  pro- 
cured "if  the  Price  was  forthcoming"  and  if 
one  could  "find  the  Price''  The  next  morning 
he  met  Price  on  the  street  and  greeted  him  with 
a  polite  "good  morning"  but  was  rebuffed  with  a 
gruff  "go  to  hell."  Sensitive  as  he  was  this  did 
not  disturb  Gedney  in  the  least.  He  felt  that  he 
had  merely  done  his  duty  and  enjoyed  a  hearty 
but  quiet  laugh  over  Price's  discourtesy.  I  have 
reason  to  think  that  Price's  testimony  in  the  case 
was  not  true  but  from  my  knowledge  of  the  man 
I  believe  he  gave  it  honestly.  This  murder  case 
will  be  referred  to  again  in  a  later  portion  of  this 
volume. 

Judge   Gedney  was   not  a  diligent   student  of 

01 


the  law.  I  have  often  wondered  how  he  acquired 
as  much  knowledge  of  the  law  applicable  to  the 
cases  he  tried  as  he  evinced.  He  was  no  "case 
lawyer."  His  library  was  sadly  deficient,  espec- 
ially in  the  way  of  digests  and  elementary 
treatises.  He  had  a  good  knowledge  of  the 
underlying  principles  of  jurisprudence  and  he  had 
the  "legal  instinct"  and  these  sufficed  for  that 
part  of  a  lawyer's  work  which  he  was  chiefly 
called  on  to  transact,  viz.,  the  presentation  of 
causes  to  juries.  He  was  also  in  the  habit  of 
talking  legal  questions  over  with  Mr.  Joseph  W. 
Gott  and  I  know  that  from  these  conversations 
he  often  obtained  valuable  assistance  in  arriving 
at  sound  conclusions.  One  other  trait  should  be 
mentioned.  Judge  Gedney  had  a  keen  and  de- 
lightful sense  of  humor.  He  seldom  perpetrated 
a  joke  but  he  could  appreciate  and  enjoy  one 
thoroughly. 

I  think  I  have  given  enough  details  about 
Judge  Gedney  to  show — dimly  I  fear — what 
manner  of  man  he  was.  He  was  not  peculiar — 
but  he  was  exceptional.  If  he  could  have  been 
spurred  to  do  his  best  and  his  utmost  he  would 
have  risen  to  marked  eminence,  or  else,  by 
reason  of  his  somewhat  delicate  constitution, 
would  have  worn  out  at  middle  life.  As  it  was 
his  even  manner  of  life  and  somewhat  indolent 
ways  preserved  him  to  nearly  three  score  years 
and  eight.  He  died  on  the  21st  day  of  June,  1888. 
As  he  himself  once  stated  it  to  me  he  "took  an 
early  start"  having  been  born  on  Monday, 
January  i,  1821,  at  one  o'clock  in  the  morning. 
He  held  but  two  public  offices.  During  the 
years  i857-'8  and  '9  he  was  District  Attorney  of 
Orange  County  and  in  1864  to  1868  he  was  the 
County  Judge  of  that  county. 

In  the  trial  of  a  case  Judge  Gedney  was 
courteous  and  considerate  invariably,  more 
especially  towards  young  men.  He  did  not  often 
examine    the    witnesses    but    when    he    did    you 

fi2 


might  expect  an  unusually  smooth,  polished  and 
thorough  piece  of  work. 

Even  in  cross-examination  he  treated  the 
witness  with  the  utmost  courtesy — but  he  was 
as  merciless  as  fate  towards  a  witness  who  pre- 
varicated. He  would  drive  such  an  one  to  the 
wall  unflinchingly  but  all  the  while  with  unfail- 
ing politeness  and  suavity.  From  beginning  to 
end  it  was  a  treat  to  watch  Judge  Gedney  try  a 
case  and  sum  it  up. 

He  married  Henrietta  Duer.  Their  descend- 
ants now  living  are  a  daughter  (not  married)  and 
one  or  two  granddaughters.  On  the  male  side 
his  family  is  extinct  and  his  family  name  will  die 
out, — as  is  the  case  with  nearly  all  the  men  whose 
careers  are  sketched  in  this  volume. 


CHARLES  H.  WINFIELD. 

"Hon.  Charles  H.  Winfield,  eminent  lawyer, 
great  orator,  renowned  public  prosecutor,  patri- 
otic legislator,  magnetic  man — son  of  Dr.  Charles 
Winfield,  was  born  near  Pine  Bush,  April  22, 
X822,  and  died  at  Walden,  June  10,  1888.  He 
graduated  at  Montgomery  Academy,  April,  1842, 
and  prosecuted  his  law  studies  in  the  office  of 
Hon.  Charles  Borland  at  Montgomery.  He  was 
admitted  to  the  bar  in  1846,  and  practiced  law 
for  a  brief  period  in  Chester.  Orange  County, 
N.  Y. 

"In  1847  he  formed  a  law  partnership  with 
William  F.  Sharp,  at  Goshen,  which  continued 
for  twenty-five  years.  On  April  5,  1868,  he  united 
in  marriage  with  Miss  Nancy  Jane  Crav/ford 
of  Montgomery,  who  survives  him.  In  1850  he 
was  elected  District  Attorney  of  Orange  County, 
which  office  he  filled  for  six  years  with  great 
reputation.  In  1H6?.  he  was  elected  to  Congress, 
and  was  re-elected  in  1864. 

63 


"In  1872  he  formed  a  law  partnership  with 
Anthon  and  Leeds  in  New  York  City,  which 
continued  until  1884,  when  ill  health  compelled 
him  to  retire.  His  fame  as  an  orator  is  secure. 
Space  fails  to  record  any  of  his  very  many 
oratorical  triumphs.  He  was  religious,  reveren- 
tial, benevolent,  social,  companionable — there 
was  never  discovered  in  him  any  trace  of  exclus- 
iveness,  arrogance  or  affectation.  His  brain 
power  was  such  that  he  was  capable  of  filling 
with  credit  any  office  in  the  gift  of  the  people. 
On  Sunday,  June  10,  1888,  "Children's  Day,"  as 
he  was  addressing  an  audience  at  the  American 
Reformed  Church  in  Walden,  an  attack  of  heart 
disease  suddenly  ended  his  mortal  life  forever." 

The  foregoing  brief  but  comprehensive  account 
of  Mr.  Winfield's  life  and  public  services  is 
copied  from  one  of  the  numbers  of  "The  Wallkill 
Valley  Souvenir." 

It  is  passing  strange  that  one  who  filled  so 
large  a  place  in  the  minds  of  the  people  of  Orange 
County  during  a  considerable  portion  of  his  life 
time  has  left  so  little  in  the  way  of  tradition  or 
anecdote  for  us  to  recall.  The  fact  is  he  was  very 
like  the  general  run  of  men,  only  bigger.  He  was 
a  large  man  physically  and  of  decidedly  more 
than  average  size  mentally.  The  impression  he 
produced  upon  his  contemporaries  was  largely 
due — principally  due  I  think — to  his  impressive- 
ness  as  a  speaker.  He  was  a  ready,  a  fluent  and  a 
forcible  talker  and  at  times  vehement  and  declam- 
atory. He  appealed  more  frequently  and  more 
successfully  to  the  emotions  and  sympathies  of 
his  hearers  than  has  any  other  lawyer  at  our  bar 
in  my  day.  He  would  at  times  move  his  audience 
to  tears  and  would  shed  tears  himself.  He  had 
a  way  when  he  was  speaking  of  running  his  hand 
through  his  curly  hair — it  was  black  in  those 
days — and  mopping  up  the  perspiration  on  his 
brow  with  his  red  silk  handkerchief. 

He  and  Gedney  were  about  the  same  age  and 

64 


•II  \i:r,i:s  Ji    ^^  im  ii;M' 


though  rivals  in  a  way  for  honors  as  orators  they 
were  the  best  of  friends  always.  But  no  two  men 
could  differ  more  in  their  general  make-up  than 
they  did.  Winfield  was  bluff,  hearty,  outspoken, 
democratic.  Gedney  was  a  patrician;  reserved, 
undemonstrative  and  aristocratic. 

Winfield  would  throw  himself  and  his  likes 
and  dislikes  into  his  case.  I  once  saw  him  get 
an  acquittal  of  a  young  fellow  who  was  on  trial 
for  some  minor  crime  and  the  ground  on  which 
he  asked  (and  got)  the  verdict  was  that  this 
young  man's  parents  had  befriended  him  when 
he  was  a  struggling  young  lawyer  down  at 
Chester.  This  plea  and  a  few  tears  did  the  job. 
Gedney  on  the  other  hand  felt  that  the  ethics  of 
the  profession  did  not  permit  him  to  go  outside 
of  the  evidence  in  the  case  in  order  to  influence 
the  jury.  He  intentionally  refrained  from  saying 
how  that  evidence  had  impressed  him — never 
saying,  "I  am  convinced" — "I  am  sure" — or  any 
such  expressions  of  his  individual  conclusions  or 
feelings. 

Mr.  Winfield  v;as  a  Member  of  Congress 
during  the  Civil  War  and  being  a  "War  Demo- 
crat" he  was  in  favor  with  the  administration. 
On  one  occasion  he  called  at  the  White  House  in 
company  with  a  friend  and  after  their  business 
with  the  President  had  been  transacted,  he 
invited  them  to  stay  and  have  ten  minutes'  talk 
with  him.  Something  that  was  said  led  Winfield 
to  say,  "that  reminds  me  of  a  story.  Mr.  President, 
that  you  are  said  to  have  told  to  Mr.  So  and  So 
from  North  Carolina,"— and  he  told  the  story. 
Lincoln  had  a  good  laugh  over  it  and  then  said, 
"I  never  told  that  story,  Mr.  Winfield.  In  fact 
I  never  heard  it  before.  The  truth  is  I  very 
seldom  tell  a  funny  story.— but  I  know  a  few 
good  ones."  And.  as  Winfield  told  the  anecdote, 
he  added  the  President's  eyes  twinkled  when  he 
spoke  of  knowing  some  "pjood  ones." 

Mr.   Lincoln  made  a  deep   impression  on   Mr. 


Winfield.  The  latter  was  heard  to  say,  several 
times,  that  he  regarded  Lincoln  as  the  ablest  man 
and  one  of  the  best  he  had  ever  met,  and  he  added 
that  the  President  was  particularly  strong  in  one 
point  where  he  had  not  had  credit  for  it — namely 
he  was  the  shrewdest  politician  in  the  land. 

Mr.  Winfield's  life  was  full  of  superficial  and 
temporary  triumphs  and  of  profound  and  lasting 
disappointments.  He  was  a  man  of  warm  affec- 
tions and  his  heart  was  wrung  by  the  death  of 
his  children — (six  I  have  been  informed) — who 
died  in  early  childhood.  His  desire  to  be  elevated 
to  the  Supreme  Court  Bench  was  not  gratified 
and  this  was  the  occasion  of  profound  disappoint- 
ment to  him.  His  last  years  were  spent  in 
retirement  from  active  life,  among  friends  and 
relatives  in  the  neighborhood  of  his  boyhood 
home.  There  his  life  was  cheered  and  comforted 
by  the  society  and  ministrations  of  his  devoted 
wife  and  his  affectionate  relatives. 

During  Mr.  Winfield's  term  of  office  as  District 
Attorney  of  this  county — which  office  he  held 
from  1850  to  1856 — an  encounter  occurred  in  New 
York  City  between  two  noted  prize-fighters,  Bill 

Poole  and Baker,  which  resulted  in  Baker's 

shooting  Poole.  The  injured  man  lived  for  a 
number  of  days  though  it  was  said  the  bullet 
penetrated  his  heart.  Meantime  Baker  had  fled 
to — or  for — Europe,  but  was  overtaken  by  a 
faster  ship  at  the  Madeiras  and  brought  back. 
The  case  was  one  which  aroused  intense  interest 
among  all  the  sporting  men — and  all  the  small 
boys — in  this  part  of  the  country.  It  was  deemed 
impossible  to  get  a  fair  trial  in  New  York  City 
so  the  case  was  sent  to  Orange  County  and  Win- 
field  won  wide  renown  for  the  skill  and  ability  he 
displayed  in  that  trial.  Even  yet  you  will  occas- 
ionally hear  old  men  speak  of  that  case  and  of 
the  part  Winfield  took  in  trying  it.  He  was 
pitted  against  one  of  the  ablest  men  at  the  New 
York  Bar   in  that   day,   James   T.    Brady,   who 


66 


defended  Baker.  As  was  usually  the  case  where 
Brady  defended,  his  client  was  not  convicted  but 
the  People's  case  was  well  presented.  Brady 
was  a  wizard  before  a  jury. 

The  last  "messenger"  came  to  Mr.  Winfield 
with  startling  suddenness.  A  Sunday  School 
convention  was  in  session  at  one  of  the  churches 
in  Walden  and  Mr.  Winfield  was  to  make  an 
address.  With  his  usual  attention  to  the  details 
of  such  occasions  he  had  chosen  to  occupy  one 
of  the  pews  at  the  side  of  the  pulpit  partly  facing 
the  congregation.  When  the  time  came  for  him 
to  deliver  his  speech  he  stepped  out  into  the  aisle 
in  front  of  that  pew  and  made  an  address  which 
delighted  all  who  heard  it.  As  he  was  closing 
it  he  spoke  of  the  hope  which  every  worker  in 
the  Sunday  School  might  justly  entertain  that 
great  good  would  flow  from  his  work  though 
such  results  might  never  be  seen  by  him  who  did 
the  work.  He  closed  with  the  expression ; 
"Would  to  God  that  my  own  life  had  been  more 
given  to  such  work."  So  saying,  he  fell  in  the 
aisle  and  "in  a  moment,  in  the  twinkling  of  an 
eye"  was  dead. 

"Sic  transit  gloria  mundi." 

In  the  trial  of  a  case  Mr.  Winfield  was 
somewhat  aggressive  and  at  times  impatient  and 
overbearing  even  with  his  own  witnesses.  For 
instance,  once  when  his  own  client  had  given 
testimony  somewhat  at  variance  with  what  Win- 
field had  expected  and  the  latter  was  trying  to 
get  him  to  modify  it  the  witness  declined  to  do 
so  and  said  in  a  conceited  way,  "I  know  what  I'm 
about,  sir."  Winfield  came  back  at  him  fiercely 
with  the  remark,  "Nobody  would  suppose  it  from 
the  way  you  act."  In  one  of  his  early  "horse" 
cases  an  odd  incident  is  said  to  have  occurred. 
A  witness  swore  that  the  horse  in  question  was 
about  sixteen  feet  high.  "You  mean  sixteen 
hands."  said  Winfield.  "That's  what  I  said."  re- 
plied the  witness.     This  led  to  a  hot  controversy 

87 


between  the  two  until  the  justice  was  appealed  to. 
He  and  several  bystanders  agreed  with  Winfield. 
By  this  time  the  witness  was  fighting  mad  and 
declared,  "I  mean  to  stand  by  my  testimony. 
I  shan't  admit  that  I  swore  to  a  lie.  What  I  said 
was  true  and  you  may  call  it  hands  or  feet  or 
whatever  else  you  damned  choose."  So  the  horse 
stood  on  the  justice's  minutes  as  sixteen  feet  tall. 
It  is  unfortunate  that  "horse"  cases  have  so 
nearly  died  out  in  this  day.  They  afforded  lots 
of  amusement  in  the  days  of  "lang  syne." 


WILLIAM  F.  SHARPE. 
Born  December  13,  1806.       Died  April  10,  1893. 

The  Sharpe  homestead  was  somewhere  in 
Connecticut — at  Abingdon  I  think — and  there 
the  subject  of  this  sketch  was  born.  During  his 
active  and  energetic  life  in  this  county  Mr. 
Sharpe  would  hardly  have  been  credited  with  any 
great  amount  of  sentiment  but  he  had  enough 
fondness  for  the  old  home  to  retain  ownership  of 
it  through  all  the  reverses  of  his  later  years  and 
finally  v/ent  there  to  spend  his  old  age  and  it  was 
there,  I  am  informed,  that  he  died,  at  the  advanced 
age  of  upwards  of  eighty-six  years.  For  many 
years  Mr.  Sharpe  was  deemed,  and  probably  was, 
a  wealthy  man.  His  home  in  Goshen  was  the 
center  of  a  generous  and  stately  hospitality.  In 
the  following  sketch  of  Mr.  Sharpe's  life  which 
was  prepared  by  Hon.  R.  C.  Coleman  who  was  a 
student  in  the  office  of  Sharpe  &  Winfield,  a 
reason  is  given  for  the  reverses  which  overtook 
him  in  his  later  years  but  it  occurs  to  me  that  in 
addition  to  that  cause  assigned  by  Mr.  Coleman 
it  is  quite  probable  that  the  dissolution  of  the  firm 
of  Sharpe  &  Winfield,  which  occurred  in  the  year 
1872,  had  an  injurious  effect  upon  Mr.  Sharpe's 

68 


WII.I.IAM     !••     SIIAltr 


business  as  a  lawyer.  He  was  a  vigorous  and 
industrious  man  of  a  somewhat  aggressive  dis- 
position but  a  pleasant  companion  and  a  genial 
host.     Mr.  Coleman  writes  as  follows: 

"Temperamentally  Mr.  Sharpe  and  Mr.  Win- 
field  were  very  different.  Mr.  Sharpe  in  business 
was  cold,  calculating  and  unemotional,  but  just. 
I  never  heard  his  integrity  questioned.  I  have 
heard  it  said  his  idea  of  a  compromise  was  to  get 
it  all  for  his  client.  In  his  home  he  was  hospita- 
ble and  cheerful,  quite  as  much  so  to  the  younger 
men  as  to  the  older.  Mr.  Winfield  was  always 
sociable  and  a  generous  liver.  Professional  work 
was  irksome  to  him,  except  when  in  court.  He 
was  a  skillful  and  rapid  draftsman  of  pleadings 
and  other  legal  documents,  which  Mr.  Sharpe 
would  afterwards  go  over  mercilessly,  boil  down 
and  correct,  resulting  in  the  end  in  a  sound  piece 
of  work.  In  business,  Mr.  Sharpe  was  the  hard 
working,  painstaking  member,  while  Mr.  Winfield 
was  the  brilliant  one  who  brought  most  of  the 
litigated  business  to  the  office  and  Mr.  Sharpe, 
the  management  of  estates  and  general  law 
business.  Winfield  preferred  to  do  his  work 
early  in  the  morning  before  the  others  arrived 
— Sharpe  was  always  to  be  found  at  his  desk 
during  office  hours.  Both  undoubtedly  knew  the 
need  one  had  for  the  other  in  business  though 
they  both  chafed  under  it.  Unquestionably  they 
did  for  a  number  of  years  the  largest  and  best  law 
business  in  their  end  of  the  county,  if  not  in  the 
whole  county. 

"Mr.  Sharpe  began  practice  in  Middletown  and 
Mr.  Winfield  in  Chester,  but  both  soon  settled 
in  Goshen.  In  life  Mr.  Sharpe  was  a  saver  and 
Mr.  Winfield  a  spender,  but  in  the  end  both  died 
poor — one  from  unfortunate  investments  in  real 
estate;  the  otlicr  from  lack  of  thrift  and  from 
prodigality.  Naturally  Mr.  Winfield  made  hosts 
of  friends  and  Mr.  Sharpe  fewer,  but  those  were 
truer." 


THE  FULLERTONS. 

Three  of  this  family  became  members  of  the 
bar  of  this  county,  viz. :  Daniel,  William  and 
Stephen  Whittaker.  The  oldest  of  these  three, 
Daniel,  can  hardly  be  said  to  have  been  one  of 
the  prominent  lawyers  of  the  county  but  it  was 
not  due  to  any  lack  of  native  ability  on  his  part 
that  he  failed  to  attain  to  that  distinction.  In 
the  opinion  of  the  older  members  of  our  bar  he 
was  as  richly  endowed  by  nature  as  was  either 
of  his  more  famous  brothers.  He  had  the  quick- 
ness of  wit  and  readiness  of  resource  of  William 
and  the  tact  and  astuteness  of  Stephen  W.  In 
eloquence  of  speech  he  probably  surpassed  either 
of  the  others  for  he  was  of  a  more  emotional 
nature  than  they  and  he  gave  ready  and  fluent 
expression  to  sentiments  of  pity  or  sympathy. 
The  bar  of  this  county  lost  what  might  have  been 
a  very  prominent  member  when  Daniel  Fullerton 
failed  to  make  the  most  and  the  best  of  the  powers 
that  had  been  given  him.  He  died  in  the  year 
1865  at  the  age  of  about  fifty-one  years — having 
been  born  on  February  loth,  1814. 

Turning  now  to  the  two  members  of  this  family 
who  became  prominent  at  our  bar, — William  and 
Stephen  W. — these  facts  are  to  be  recorded: 
William  was  born  on  May  ist,  181 7,  and  died  on 
March  i8th,  1900.  Stephen  Whittaker  (who  was 
named  for  his  father)  was  born  on  October  17, 
1823,  and  died  on  April  3rd,  1902.  Their  early 
home  was  in  the  Town  of  Minisink  where  their 
father  was  a  man  of  considerable  influence  for  a 
good  many  years.  For  one  term  he  was  the 
member  of  Assembly  from  his  district;  for 
five  years  Associate  County  Judge;  and  for  six- 
teen years  consecutively  a  Justice  of  the  Peace. 

These  offices  while  of  no  great  importance  in 
themselves  show  that  the  elder  Fullerton  was 
held  in  good  esteem  bv  his  neighbors  and  it  may 
be  that  the  fact  of  his  holding  them   and  the 

TO 


nature  of  the  business  to  which  they  led  him  to 
give  more  or  less  of  his  time  had  some  influence 
in  causing  three  of  his  sons  to  adopt  the  law  as 
their  vocation. 

These  sons  all  resembled  their  father  strongly 
in  physical  traits  and  in  mental  equipment.  They 
were  all  like  him  of  average  stature,  rather  under 
than  over,  all  sturdy  and  "stocky"  built,  all  very 
quick  and  active,  both  physically  and  mentally. 
The  youngest  of  the  three — Stephen  W. — had 
rather  more  of  his  mother's  traits  than  the  other 
two  had.  His  caution  and  his  remarkable  tact 
seem  to  have  been  inherited  chiefly  from  her. 
She  was  a  Stephens — Esther  Stephens — and  came 
of  Puritan  ancestry.  She  was  recognized  by  all 
her  neighbors  to  be  a  woman  of  very  superior 
mental  equipment,  of  great  tact  and  far-sighted- 
ness and  of  uncommonly  good  judgment.  It  is 
worthy  of  record  that  both  the  grandmothers  of 
the  distinguished  men  concerning  whom  this 
sketch  is  written  were  sufferers  by  reason  of  the 
Indian  depredations  at  the  time  of  our  Revolu- 
tionary War.  Their  mother's  mother  was  named 
Amy  Cooley  and  her  mother  was  killed  by  the 
savages  in  one  of  their  raids  near  Middletown. 
Three  of  the  children  of  the  family  were  taken 
at  the  same  time  into  captivity — from  which,  by 
the  bye,  they  never  returned  save  that  one  of 
them  came,  many  years  later,  for  a  short  visit 
to  the  neighborhood  of  his  old  home. 

On  the  other  side  of  the  house, — their  father's 
mother  was  Mary — (Polly) — Whittaker  and  she 
was  one  of  the  school  children  whose  faces  were 
marked  with  paint  by  Brandt  in  order  that  their 
lives  might  be  spared  by  his  savage  followers  at 
the  time  of  the  Wyoming  massacre.  She  fled, 
with  other  survivors  of  that  tragedy  throiin;h  the 
wilderness  towards  her  old  home  in  Orange 
Countv. 

WIT.LIAM  FULT>ERTON  was  the  second 
son, — the     third     child — born     into     this     family 

71 


which,  by  the  bye,  ultimately  consisted  of  seven 
sons  and  five  daughters.  He  seems  to  have 
enjoyed  better  educational  opportunities  in  his 
youth  than  did  any  of  his  brothers  or  sisters  so 
that  at  the  age  of  eighteen  years  he  was  prepared 
to  enter  the  junior  class  at  Union  College.  There 
he  remained  only  one  year  but  withdrew  "in  good 
standing"  as  the  records  of  the  college  show.  His 
class — that  of  1837 — contained  an  unusual  num- 
ber of  young  men  who  afterwards  rose  to 
positions  of  eminent  distinction  and  the  acquaint- 
ances then  made  must  have  exerted  a  strong 
influence  on  all  Fullerton's  subsequent  life. 
Among  his  college  classmates  was  Joseph  W. 
Gott  who  became  one  of  the  prominent  lawyers 
of  this  county  a  few  years  later. 

After  leaving  college  Mr.  Fullerton  is  said  to 
have  gone  to  the  South  and  taught  school  for  a 
short  time.  This  rumor  I  have  been  unable  to 
verify  but  if  it  is  correct  his  stay  at  the  South 
must  have  been  brief  as  he  studied  law  with 
William  C.  Hasbrouck  in  Newburgh  and  was 
admitted  to  the  Bar  in  1839. 

His  success  in  his  chosen  profession  was 
marked  and  his  progress  to  the  front  rank  was 
very  rapid.  He  had  all  the  elements  of  a  great 
nisi  prius  lawyer.  Other  members  of  the  Bar 
of  this  county  of  that  day  surpassed  him  in  elo- 
quence of  speech  beyond  a  doubt,  but  in  the 
management  of  litigated  business  he  had  no 
superior  and  probably  no  equal.  He  was  sur- 
passingly keen,  quick  and  adroit;  very  energetic 
and  industrious;  more  a  "man  of  the  people'' 
than  most  of  his  competitors  and  a  smooth,  ready 
and  forcible  speaker.  As  a  cross-examiner  he 
became  famous  so  much  so  that  he  was  known 
as  "the  great  American  cross-examiner." 

In  the  year  1852  he  was  pitted  against  Charles 
O'Connor,  of  New  York  Citv,  who  was  then  one 
of  the  leading  lawyers  of  this  country,  in  some 
litigation  connected  with  the  construction  of  the 

72 


^r ..  »k;«^  'V,:>s^t»i<5«S3»9fci:-f;;«:«%*'*«5;^';^ 


WIIJJAM    irivLEKTON 


Hudson  River  Railroad.  The  matter  had  been 
argued  at  considerable  length  before  Judge 
Emmott  at  Poughkeepsie.  At  the  close  of  the 
argument  both  attorneys  asked  leave  to  submit 
briefs.  The  judge  seemed  to  feel  that  briefs 
should  have  been  prepared  before  the  argument 
and  said  that  they  might  have  until  Saturday, 
which  was  then  two  days  off,  for  submitting 
printed  briefs.  O'Connor  deemed  it  impossible 
to  get  the  work  done  in  the  alloted  time  and 
made  no  attempt  to  do  so  but  Fullerton  got 
Judge  McKissock  to  help  him  and  together  they 
went  to  the  printing  office  of  E,  M.  Ruttenber 
and  there  the  three  worked  nearly  all  night, 
McKissock  stating  the  points  of  law  and  naming 
the  cases  which  covered  the  point ;  Fullerton 
looking  up  the  case  as  reported  and  stating  the 
language  in  which  the  proposition  should  be 
briefed  and  Ruttenber  setting  the  type.  In  the 
morning  the  brief  was  on  the  press  and  the  next 
morning  it  was  in  the  judge's  hands,  and  was  a 
winning  argument.  O'Connor  was  so  impressed 
by  Mr.  Fullerton's  management  of  this  case  that 
he  offered  him  a  partnership.  This  was  accepted 
and  Mr.  Fullerton  removed  to  New  York  in  the 
year  1853  and  a  co-partnership  was  formed  then 
or  about  that  time  under  the  firm  name  of 
O'Connor,  Fullerton  &  Dunning, — the  last  being 
also  an  Orange  County  man,  viz.,  Benjamin  F. 
Dunning. 

From  this  time  on  Mr.  Fullerton's  connection 
with  Orange  County  affairs  may  be  said  to  have 
ceased,  though  he  retained  his  residence  at  New- 
burgh  as  long  as  he  lived.  It  need  only  be  added 
that  he  was  thenceforth  engaged  in  most  of  the 
important  law  suits  tried  in  the  metropolis  and 
his  standing  as  one  of  the  greatest  trial  lawyers 
of  this  country  was  universally  conceded. 

During  his  earlier  years  in  New  York  he  was 
sometimes  spoken  of  there  among  the  court 
attendants  as  "the  Orange  County  cyclone"  and 

78 


his  methods  were  watched  with  much  interest 
and  some  curiosity. 

It  is  told  of  him  that  soon  after  going  to  the 
city  he  was  employed  to  try  a  case  in  Admiralty. 
The  hangers-on  about  court  assumed  that  he 
didn't  know  anything  about  a  sea-going  vessel 
and  they  gathered  to  watch  the  trial  and  enjoy 
the  sight  of  the  country  lawyer's  discomfiture. 
But  they  were  doomed  to  disappointment.  Mr. 
Fullerton  spent  the  entire  night  preceding  the 
day  of  the  trial  on  board  the  vessel  to  which  the 
action  related  and  before  morning  he  had  learned 
the  name  and  use  of  every  spar  and  sail  and  rope 
and  was  completely  armed  and  equipped  for  the 
fray. 

In  a  number  of  cases  in  which  he  was  the 
plaintiff's  attorney,  Mr.  Fullerton  has  been 
known  to  call  the  defendant  as  his  first  witness 
and  then  by  a  careful  and  skillful  examination 
get  this  witness  to  commit  himself  to  a  theory 
which  could  be  destroyed  later  by  plaintiff's  other 
witnesses.  The  delicate  treatment  required  in 
such  a  manoeuvre  will  be  appreciated  by  those 
who  may  have  ventured  to  try  it. 

William  Fullerton's  most  conspicuous  partici- 
pation in  any  Orange  County  litigation  after  he 
removed  to  New  York  was  in  connection  with 
the  Berdell  cases. 

As  to  the  merits  or  demerits  of  those  cases  I 
shall  not  attempt  to  speak.  I  know  that  they 
nearly  disrupted  every  social  circle  in  Goshen. 
The  Fullertons  were  opposed  to  Mr.  Berdell  in 
those  actions  and  their  management  of  them  was 
masterly.  Mr.  Berdell  was  a  man  of  wide  busi- 
ness experience, — an  ex-president  of  the  Erie 
Railway  Company  and  well  able  to  defend  him- 
self when  on  the  witness  stand.  His  cross- 
examination  by  the  Fullertons,  first  by  Stephen 
W.  and  then  by  William  on  the  trial  of  one  of 
those  actions  was  one  of  the  most  striking 
examples  of  the  art  of  cross-examination   ever 

74 


witnessed  in  this  county.  In  three  different 
instances  Mr.  Berdell  was  driven  from  point  to 
point  in  attempting  to  explain  some  of  his  trans- 
actions until  finally  he  was  compelled  to  say, 
"I  cannot  explain  that."  Taking  into  account 
the  mental  equipment  of  the  witness  and  his 
business  experience  this  was  a  very  remarkable 
exhibition  of  the  ability  and  ingenuity  of  the 
men  who  were  questioning  him. 

There  was  one  painful  experience  in  Mr. 
Fullerton's  life  to  which  I  must  refer  because 
some  reader  of  this  sketch  might  misconstrue 
my  silence.  He  was  indicted  at  one  time  for 
alleged  frauds  upon  the  United  States  Govern- 
ment in  connection  with  the  settlement  of  some 
actions  for  penalties  wherein  he  had  been  retain- 
ed to  assist  the  United  States  District  Attorney. 
I  happen  to  know  the  motive  for  this  attack  upon 
Mr.  Fullerton  and  am  able  to  state  that  there 
was  absolutely  no  substantial  basis  for  the 
accusation.  This  was  shown  conclusively  at  the 
trial  for  the  presiding  judge  directed  the  Jury  to 
acquit  the  accused.  Such  a  charge,  however 
baseless  it  may  be,  leaves  a  scar  on  any  lawyer's 
reputation  and  doubtless  Mr.  Fullerton  was 
pained  most  deeply  and  injured  to  some  extent 
in  his  business  by  this  baseless  and  malicious 
accusation. 

The  only  public  office  ever  held  by  the  subject 
of  this  sketch  so  far  as  I  have  been  able  to  learn 
was  that  of  a  Justice  of  the  Supreme  Court,  to 
which  he  was  appointed  in  August,  1867,  to  fill 
the  vacancy  caused  by  the  death  of  Judge 
Scrugham.  Under  the  arrangement  which  then 
prevailed  in  this  State  by  which  certain  of  the 
Supreme  Court  Judges  became  members  of  the 
Court  of  Appeals  during  the  last  year  of  their 
official  term  Mr.  Fullerton  was  for  a  short  time 
a  member  of  the  highest  court  of  this  State.  It 
is  worthy  of  remark  that  at  that  same  time  John 
K.    Porter   was   also    a    member   of  that   august 


Ti'i 


tribunal  and  these  two  men  had  been  classmates 
in  college  thirty  years  before. 

STEPHEN  W.  FULLERTON  was  the  sixth 
child — the  fourth  son — of  the  family  and  was 
named  for  his  father.  When  only  about  sixteen 
years  old  he  caine  to  the  City  of  Newburgh  and 
obtained  a  position  as  junior  clerk  in  the  post 
office.  This  was  at  the  time  that  his  brother 
William  began  to  practice  and  it  was  not  long 
before  Stephen  W.  was  taken  into  his  brother's 
ofSce  and  began  to  read  law.  He  was  admitted 
to  the  bar  in  due  course  and  began  his  profes- 
sional life  by  forming  a  co-partnership  with  his 
brother  Daniel  whose  office  was  at  Slate  Hill. 
It  must  have  been  hard  work  for  the  two  to  get 
a  living  at  the  law  in  such  a  little  and  remote 
village  as  that.  It  was  for  that  reason  probably 
that  Stephen  Fullerton  returned  to  Newburgh 
a  few  years  later  in  pursuance  of  the  suggestion 
of  his  brother  William.  Here  he  slowly,  but 
surely,  made  his  way  to  the  front  rank  of  the 
profession  and  upon  the  removal  of  William  to 
New  York  in  1853  Stephen  W.  succeeded  to  a 
considerable  share  of  the  business  of  the  older 
brother. 

He  remained  at  Newburgh  until  1873  when  he 
removed  to  New  York  and  formed  a  partnership 
with  his  brother  William  and  two  other  lawyers 
under  the  firm  name  of  Fullerton,  Knox  &  Cros- 
by. The  connection  was  an  unfortunate  one 
because  of  the  misconduct  of  one  of  the  junior 
partners;  and  at  the  end  of  four  or  five  years  of 
hard  work  the  firm  was  dissolved  and  the  Fuller- 
tons  found  themselves  saddled  with  a  heavy 
indebtedness  which  it  took  them  several  years  to 
discharge.  These  things  interfered  more  or  less 
v/ith  Mr.  Fullerton's  success  as  a  metropolitan 
lawyer  but  in  spite  of  them  he  progressed  stead- 
ily, though  slowly,  towards  "the  very  first  line" 
and  came  to  be  recognized  by  his  fellow-lawyers 
as  fully  equal  to  his  brother  William  in  all  the 

76 


s'n:i'iii;.\   w     iri,i,i;i:Ti 'X 


qualities  which  go  to  make  a  great  lawyer.  His 
success  would  have  continued,  doubtless,  had  it 
not  been  for  a  very  serious  injury  which  he  re- 
ceived in  the  year  189 1  by  being  thrown  from  his 
wagon  while  driving  in  Central  Park.  His  horse 
was  a  very  high-spirited  one  and  when  the  bit 
broke  Mr.  Fullerton  had  no  control  of  him.  He 
was  thrown  from  the  wagon  and  fell  heavily, 
striking  upon  his  head.  For  twenty-eight  hours 
he  was  unconscious  and  he  never  fully  recovered ; 
he  was  never  quite  the  same  as  before.  His 
phenomenal  mental  powers  had  lost  an  undefin- 
able  something  which  left  him  less  able  to  cope 
with  the  duties  and  problems  of  his  professional 
work.  He  fought  on  however  as  best  he  could 
till  the  end — always  the  same  courageous, 
unselfish,  generous,  lovable  man.  The  deepest 
sorrow  of  his  old  age  arose  from  his  inability  to 
aid  others  and  his  need  of  help  from  others.  The 
last  three  or  four  years  of  his  life  were  spent  at 
Middletown,  near  the  scenes  of  his  boyhood  days, 
and  there  the  final  summons  came  to  him  on 
April  3,  igo2 — in  the  form  of  a  stroke  of  paralysis. 

At  a  meeting  of  the  bar  held  at  Newburgh  to 
adopt  resolutions  of  respect  eloquent  tributes  to 
his  worth  were  paid  by  Mr.  Charles  Rushmore  of 
New  York,  by  Mr.  Luther  R.  Marsh,  of  Middle- 
town,  (formerly  a  partner  of  Daniel  Webster), 
and  by  Hon.  M.  H.  Hirschberg,  the  presiding 
justice  of  the  Appellate  Division  of  the  Supreme 
Court — who  was,  in  early  life,  a  student  in  Mr. 
Fullerton's  office.  These  addresses  were  all 
admirable  but  that  of  Judge  Hirschberg  was  pre- 
eminently so  and  was  so  fit  and  just  a  tribute 
to  Mr.  Fullerton's  memory  that  I  shall  quote 
from  it  freely.     Judge  Hirschberg  said : 

"His  greatness  was  innate.  It  was  the  result 
of  native  talent  and  genius  and  not  at  all  of 
adventitious  aid  or  fortunate  surroundings.  He 
had  a  mind  that  was  at  once  alert,  sagacious,  clear, 
powerful    and    comprehensive ;    a    temperament 

77 


that  threw  him,  body  and  soul,  into  his  cHent's 
cause  so  that  he  would  win  if  he  could;  not  for 
gain,  as  in  this  commercial  age,  but,  if  need  be,  at 
the  sacrifice  of  every  dollar  he  possessed;  and 
withal  a  shrewdness,  an  adroitness,  an  instinctive 
subtlety  in  the  comprehension  of  human  nature 
and  its  complicated  motives  and  impulses  and  in 
anticipating  its  least  expected  manifestations 
only  equalled,  if  at  all,  in  the  marvelous  creations 
of  fiction.  I  shall  not  hesitate  to  express  the 
opinion  as  a  deliberate  judgment,  formed  after 
nearly  thirty-six  years  of  experience  and  obser- 
vation, that  in  his  prime,  when  he  was  in  the 
plentitude  of  his  health  and  vigor,  the  issue  of 
fortune,  of  honor,  aye,  of  life  itself,  was  as  safe 
in  his  professional  keeping  as  in  that  of  any  other 
man,  however  high  in  standing  and  repute,  who 
then  practiced  law  in  the  State  of  New  York. 

"To  speak  of  Judge  Fullerton  as  a  man  is  to 
speak  wholly  of  sweetness,  gentleness,  kindness 
and  geniality,  companionship,  whole-souled 
friendliness  and  generosity.  His  heart  was  as 
large  as  his  mind.  His  friendship  was  heroic  in 
its  loyalty,  of  that  rare  kind  that  brooks  neither 
offense  nor  calumny,  but  adheres  alike  through 
evil  and  through  good  report.  With  him  no  lie 
about  a  friend  could  ever  gain  a  hearing. 

"His  life  was  full  of  stainless  honor,  modest 
usefulness  and  manly  self-respect.  A  noble  and 
commanding  figure  has  floated  down  the  current 
of  our  contemporaneous  life  into  the  mysterious 
and  fathomless  sea  of  the  unknown.  A  great  heart 
has  ceased  to  throb ;  a  mighty  voice  is  stilled." 

During  his  residence  in  this  county  he  filled 
various  public  offices.  He  was  a  member  of 
Assembly  in  1858 ;  a  member  of  the  Constitutional 
Convention  of  1867 ;  District  Attorney  of  the 
county  in  1868  to  1871 ;  County  Judge  from  1872 
to  1878.  His  personal  popularity  was  unbounded 
and  whenever  he  ran  for  office  he  was  elected  by 
heavy  majorities. 

78 


He  was  generous  to  a  fault.  The  writer  of 
this  sketch  had  a  somewhat  intimate  knowledge 
of  his  charities  and  is  able  to  state  that  he  gave 
away  during  his  lifetime  enough  to  have  consti- 
tuted a  very  considerable  fortune.  Indeed  his 
generosity  seemed  to  an  observer  somewhat 
indiscriminate  and  injudicious  but  it  was  consist- 
ent when  once  you  grasped  the  underlying 
motive.  He  gave  help  not  because  the  recipient 
deserved,  but  because  he  needed  it.  He  imitated 
Him  who  "sendeth  rain  on  the  evil  and  on  the 
good."  A  truer,  kinder,  more  loyal  or  more 
courageous  heart  never  beat.  A  keener,  clearer, 
more  vigorous  mind  it  has  never  been  my  good 
fortune  to  come  in  contact  with. 

During  the  period  of  his  stay  in  this  county 
he  formed  two  co-partnerships.  The  first  was 
with  Charles  H.  Van  Wyck,  who  was  afterwards 
a  Member  of  Congress,  a  Colonel  in  the  Union 
Army  during  the  Civil  War,  and  still  later  a 
United  States  Senator  from  Nebraska,  who  was 
known  by  the  irreverent  youths  of  the  West  as 
"Crazy  Horse  Van  Wyck." 

His  second  partnership  was  with  the  writer  of 
this  sketch  who  cherishes  the  memory  of  that 
relation  with  much  pride  and  satisfaction.  It 
continued  until  Mr.  Fullerton  removed  to  New 
York  City. 

William  Fullerton  had  one  son  and  one 
daughter.  The  son  pre-deceased  him  and  died  in 
early  manhood,  unmarried.     The  daughter  is  still 

livinf^;  (1917)  and  is  the  widow  of  Rudd. 

She  has  one  child,  a  daughter,  Alice,  (now  Mrs. 
Otis),  who  has  three  sons. 

Stephen  W.  Fullerton  left  one  son,  Frank,  who 
is  still  living  to  the  best  of  deponent's  knowledge 
and  belief. 

Daniel  Fullerton  left  several  children  and  a 
number  of  his  grandchildren  still  survive.  One 
of  the  latter  is  a  practicing  lawyer — Henry  B. 
Fullerton — whose  office  is  at  Port  Jervis. 


(The  following  sketch  was  prepared  by  William 
Graham,  L.  L.  D.,  at  Mr.  Anthony's  request.) 

HON.  JOHN  JAMES  MONELL. 

Like  General  Borland,  William  C.  Hasbrouck 
and  Judge  McKissock,  Judge  Monell  was  a  native 
of  the  Town  of  Montgomery.  His  parents, 
Samuel  and  Elvira  (Scott)  Monell,  both  sleep 
in  the  cemetery  adjoining  Goodwill  Church,  both 
having  been  members  of  that  organization.  Like 
each  of  the  lawyers  above  named,  he  was  a 
student  at  Montgomery  Academy,  but  was  pre- 
pared for  college  by  that  distinguished  scholar 
and  preacher.  Rev.  Dr.  James  R.  Wilson  of 
Coldenham.  He  was  graduated  at  Union  Col- 
lege in  the  class  of  1833,  standing  well  toward 
the  front  in  a  class  which  included  many  able 
men,  two  of  whom  were  afterward  distinguished 
Judges  of  the  Supreme  Court.  He  studied  law 
under  Hon.  John  W.  Brown,  was  admitted  to 
the  bar  in  1837,  and  immediately  entered  upon 
practice  in  Newburgh,  and  soon  attained  a  high 
rank  in  his  profession,  and  was  successful  both 
in  winning  his  cases,  and  in  obtaining  a  proper 
return  for  his  labor. 

As  a  lawyer  he  was  careful  in  the  preparation 
of  his  cases,  accurate  in  his  pleadings,  laborious 
in  preparing  his  briefs,  clear,  cogent  and  concise 
in  his  presentation  of  the  law  to  the  court, 
luminous,  convincing  and  attractive  in  his  ad- 
dresses to  the  jury,  and,  whether  on  the  winning 
or  the  losing  side,  never  failed  to  protect  and 
preserve  the  rights  of  his  clients. 

In  his  earlier  life  he  was  a  pronounced  Demo- 
crat, prominent  and  influential  in  the  counsels  of 
his  party.  He  received  the  nomination  for 
Congress  in  1846,  but  owing  to  the  dissensions 
between  the  factions  of  his  party,  was  defeated. 
In  1859  he  was  elected  County  Julge,  and  served 
one  term  which  was  the  only  elective  office  he 

80 


JOHN   .7,    MONEI.L 


ever   held.     In    the    latter   part   of    his   life   he 
a£&liated  with  the  Republicans. 

In  every  movement  for  the  civic  improvement 
of  Newburgh  he  was  active  and  prominent.  No 
more  public-spirited  citizen  lived  in  the  town. 
His  hand  and  voice  and  purse  were  freely  given 
to  every  effort  for  benefiting  or  beautifying  the 
city.  His  public  addresses  in  behalf  of  such 
efforts  were  full  of  eloquence  and  beauty,  and  no 
public  enterprise  for  worthy  objects  failed  to 
receive  his  support. 

Judge  Monell  was  possessed  of  a  singularly 
equable  temper  which  notwithstanding  his  high 
spirit  he  held  under  strict  control.  I  never  saw 
him  out  of  temper  but  once  though  often  sorely 
tried.  On  this  occasion  a  brother  lawyer,  at 
whose  request  he  had  consented  to  the  continu- 
ance of  a  case  in  a  Justice  Court  several  times 
for  his  accommodation,  claimed  that  the  case  was 
adjourned  out  of  court.  The  case  though  a 
small  one  involved  an  important  question  on 
which  the  plaintiff  wished  to  obtain  a  ruling  from 
the  General  Term.  The  defendant's  counsel 
succeeded  in  obliging  the  plaintiff  to  bring  a  new 
suit,  but  Judge  Monell  never  took  his  word  for 
anything  afterward. 

I  began  the  study  of  law  under  Judge  Monell 
in  the  fall  of  1852  but  did  not  enter  his  office 
until  May,  1853 ;  from  that  time  until  my  removal 
to  Iowa,  our  association  was  much  closer  than  is 
usual  between  preceptor  and  scholnr,  and  I  learn- 
ed to  admire  the  clearness  of  his  perceptions,  and 
the  soundness  of  his  judgment.  Few  men  ever 
possessed  a  kinder  heart,  a  fact  that  some,  who 
were  by  no  means  his  friends,  were  not  slow  to 
take  advantage  of.  I  have  known  few  men  who 
were  more  caf^cr  or  persistent  in  pursuit  of  the 
"AImip:hty  Dollar."  and  still  fewer  who  were 
more  liberal  in  dispensing  it  after  it  was  won. 
There  was  not  the  least  trace  of  the  miser  about 
him.     It  was  for  the  satisfaction  of  winning  that 

HI 


made  him  so  keen  in  the  contest,  and  when  he 
had  won  he  was  ready  to  share  the  fruits  of 
victory  in  the  advancement  of  civic  righteous- 
ness, or  the  adornment  of  the  "City  Beautiful." 

When  the  heart  is  kind  it  is  generally  tender 
and  sensitive,  and  to  such  a  person  the  contests 
of  the  court  room  in  the  trial  of  cases  often 
become  distasteful,  and  when  other  avenues  open 
upon  vistas  of  greater  profit,  with  less  wear  and 
tear  of  sensibility,  it  is  no  wonder  that  men  who 
possess  rare  gifts  of  persuasiveness,  and  large 
stores  of  legal  knowledge,  prefer  the  less  con- 
spicuous and  more  profitable  employment  of 
their  talents.  I  am  satisfied  in  my  own  mind 
that  it  was  some  such  considerations  which  led 
William  C.  Hasbrouck  and  Judge  Monell  to 
withdraw  largely  from  litigated  business,  and 
devote  themselves  to  the  management  of  large 
estates. 

The  last  interview  I  had  with  Judge  Monell 
was  a  few  months  before  his  death.  He  insisted 
that  I  should  go  home  with  him  to  dinner,  and 
as  we  sat  on  the  porch  of  his  spacious  residence 
overlooking  the  noble  bay  with  its  grand  sur- 
roundings, v/hich  he  loved  so  much,  he  told  me 
more  of  his  life  than  he  had  ever  told  before. 
Among  other  things  he  said  that  he  inherited 
from  his  father  a  certain  amount  of  money,  and 
a  calculation  of  what  it  would  amount  to  if  he 
invested  it  and  accumulated  the  interest,  demon- 
strated that  if  he  lived  till  his  sixty-fifth  birthday 
he  would  have  a  fortune  ample  enough  for  him 
to  retire  on,  and  he  then  made  a  resolution  that 
he  would  keep  his  patrimony  accumulating,  and 
not  spend  a  dollar  of  it,  and  that  he  would  live 
upon  his  earnine^s  at  the  bar,  and  not  stint  him- 
self as  long  as  he  kept  within  his  income  from 
that  source.  He  said  he  had  adhered  to  that 
resolve  all  his  life,  and  that  the  legacy  he  had 
received  from  his  father  was  still  intact  with  all 
its  accumulated  dividends.     He  further  said  that 

82 


as  he  approached  his  sixty-fifth  birthday  he  saw 
his  fortune  was  more  than  double  what  he  had 
resolved  to  retire  on,  but  his  health  was  excel- 
lent, and  all  his  mental  powers  unimpaired: 
That  his  business  was  never  better,  or  more 
profitable,  and  his  office  in  New  York,  on  the 
days  he  was  there,  was  crowded  with  clients.  It 
was  a  severe  struggle  with  him  whether  he 
should  keep  on  at  work,  or  retire  when  his 
powers  and  his  business  were  at  the  maximum. 
He  said  that  on  his  sixty-fifth  birthday  he  went 
to  his  office,  and  after  reviewing  the  situation 
fought  the  problem  out  with  himself,  with  the 
result  that  he  took  all  the  papers  relating  to  the 
cases  then  under  his  charge  to  Cassedy  and 
Brown,  and  asked  them  to  try  the  cases  for  him, 
and  from  that  day  he  had  not  interested  himself 
in  any  business  except  that  of  his  own,  or  his 
family.  He  added  that  I  could  scarcely  under- 
stand how  much  he  had  enjoyed  his  retired  life, 
resting  under  his  own  vine  and  fig  tree,  or 
rusticating  on  his  farm  at  White  Lake. 

In  that  conversation  I  tried  to  express  my 
sense  of  obligation  to  him  for  his  aid  and  counsel 
to  which  he  would  not  listen,  but  said  that  if  he 
had  aided  me  in  any  respect  it  was  because  he 
liked  to  do  it  and  it  was  a  source  of  real  enjoy- 
ment to  him,  but  if  I  felt  under  any  obligation  to 
him  I  could  discharge  it  by  doing  as  much  for 
some  other  student  of  law,  and  "you  know," 
said  he,  "it  is  our  business  and  duty  to  help 
others."  And  so  at  the  sunset  of  that  summer 
day  we  parted  to  meet  no  more  on  earth,  but 
while  memory  endures  the  recollection  of  the 
kindness  of  heart  and  the  grace  of  character  of 
Judge  Monell  will  not  fade  from  my  mind. 

ADDENDA    BY   W.   C.    A. 

Judge  Monell  was  twice  married.  His  first 
wife  was  Mary  C.  Smith  (of  Connecticut),  a 
woman  of  unusual  attractiveness  and  of  consider- 


able  literary  cleverness.  During  her  life-time 
their  home  was  in  the  City  of  Newburgh  and  was 
a  sort  of  social  center.  Every  person  of  note 
who  visited  this  city  was  almost  sure  to  be  invited 
to  spend  some  part  of  his  stay  with  the  Monells 
and  a  congenial  circle  of  friends  would  be  gath- 
ered there  to  meet  him.  Their  home  was  famous 
for  its  charming  hospitality.  Judge  Monell's 
second  wife  was  Caroline  E.,  daughter  of  John 
P.  DeWint  and  widow  of  Andrew  J.  Downing 
("the  father  of  American  architecture").  Her 
ancestral  home  was  at  Beacon  and  Judge  Monell 
therefore  sold  his  Newburgh  home  and  built  a 
new  one  on  the  Fishkill  side  of  the  river. 

Judge  Monell  was  a  graceful,  easy  speaker, 
who  was  always  listened  to  with  pleasure, — a 
scholarly,  thoughtful  and  cultivated  gentleman. 
His  hospitable  ways  continued  in  a  marked  de- 
gree as  long  as  he  lived. 

He  was  born  February  24,  1813,  and  died  April 
22,  1885.  Graduated  (Union  College)  1833; 
admitted  to  the  bar  in  1837.  ^^  ^^^^  one  child, 
a  daughter  who  married  Fred  S.  Wait,  a  lawyer, 
the  author  of  several  text-books  on  legal  subjects. 


JOHN  G.  WILKIN 

was  born  on  October  22nd,  1818,  in  what  is  now 
the  Town  of  Hamptonburgh  in  this  county.  His 
education  was  obtained  principally  at  the  Mont- 
gomery Academy  where  he  was  a  student  for  a 
number  of  years.  Afterwards  he  taught  school 
at  Monticello,  N.  Y.,  for  several  years  and  seems 
to  have  combined  with  that  occupation  the  study 
of  the  law,  which  he  pursued  in  the  office  of 
William  B.  Wright  who  afterwards  became  a 
Justice  of  the  Supreme  Court,  an  Associate 
Judge  of  the  Court  of  Appeals  and  a  lawyer  of 
marked    distinction.       Judge    Wright    was    an 

84 


JOHN    C.     Wll-KIN 


Orange  County  man — (born  at  Newburgh) — and 
began  his  professional  career  here.  He  would 
well  deserve  a  place  in  this  book  were  it  not  for 
the  fact  that  his  work  as  a  lawyer  while  he  con- 
tinued to  be  a  member  of  the  Orange  County  Bar 
gave  little  indication,  if  any,  of  the  ability  he 
possessed  and  little  promise  of  the  success  he 
achieved.  His  real  work  was  all  done  after  he 
removed  from  this  county. 

After  spending  several  years  in  Judge  Wright's 
office  Mr.  Wilkin  entered  the  office  of  General 
A.  C.  Niven  of  Monticello. 

In  October,  1842,  he  was  admitted  as  an 
attorney  and  in  1845  as  a  counselor  at  law. 
Meantime — in  January,  1843 — he  had  opened  an 
office  in  Middletown  and  he  continued  to  make 
that  place  his  home  and  to  maintain  his  office 
there  up  to  the  time  of  his  death  which  occurred 
on  the  19th  day  of  January,  1889. 

Under  the  militia  system  then  in  force  in  this 
State  he  was  a  Brigadier  Judge  Advocate  and 
under  the  legal  system  he  was  an  examiner  in 
chancery.  He  was  the  first  Special  County 
Judge  and  the  second  County  Judge  to  be  elected 
in  this  county.  To  the  latter  office  he  was  elected 
in  November,  1851;  and  again  in  1881  he  was 
chosen  to  the  same  position.  From  1861  to  1869 
he  was  the  United  States  Revenue  Collector  for 
this  district.  The  office  was  an  appointive  one 
and  the  general  feeling  among  the  older  lawyers 
of  the  county  was  that  Judge  Wilkin  had  im- 
paired his  standing  as  a  lawyer  by  accepting  it. 

Mr.  Wilkin  was  a  large,  fine  looking  man  of 
impressive  presence  and  agreeable  manners. 
For  many  years  he  was  the  leader  of  the  Middle- 
town  bar.  This  assertion  applies  more  to  his 
position  as  an  office  lawyer  than  as  an  advocate. 

In  the  trial  of  cases  some  of  the  members  of 
the  bar  could  fairly  challenge  his  leadership  but 
it  seemed  to  me  that  the  important  and  profitable 
legal    business    of    Middletown    and    its   vicinity 


found  its  way,  generally,  to  Mr.  Wilkin's  office. 

He  had  the  reputation,  and  I  doubt  not  deserv- 
ed it,  of  being  "learned  in  the  law."  Aside  from 
this  his  business  experience  had  been  consider- 
able and  he  had  good  practical  common  sense. 
Whenever  he  had  an  important  case  to  be  tried 
he  usually  associated  Gedney  or  Fullerton  with 
himself  in  connection  with  the  work  in  court. 
He  may  at  times  have  employed  Winfield  for  this 
part  of  his  business  though  I  do  not  recall  such 
an  instance  now.  He  was  a  very  pronounced 
Republican  and  though  he  undoubtedly  would 
consult  his  clients'  wishes  as  to  the  trial  counsel 
to  be  employed  his  political  leaning  prompted 
him,  if  the  choice  was  left  to  him,  to  select  either 
Gedney  or  Fullerton. 

Charles  C.  McQuoid,  a  very  promising  young 
lawyer,  residing  in  Middletown,  who  died  at  an 
early  age — (in  his  thirties  I  think) — was  his 
partner  in  business  for  a  time  and  looked  after 
the  litigated  business  of  the  firm. 

Judge  Wilkin  was  possessed  of  much  force  of 
character  and  had  a  strong — but  not  a  winsome — 
personality.  His  industry  was  marked ;  his 
loyalty  to  his  friends  was  sincere;  his  diligence 
in  protecting  and  promoting  the  interests  of  his 
clients  was  intense ;  his  integrity  was  unquestion- 
ed and  unquestionable.  Take  him  for  all  in  all 
he  was  well  adapted  to  be  a  leader  in  a  young, 
growing,  active  place,  such  as  Middletown  then 
was  and  he  naturally  became  one  of  the  most 
prominent  men  in  that  community.  I  am  de- 
scribing the  man  as  I  saw  him.  My  acquaintance 
with  him  was  not  especially  intimate,  and  I  have 
therefore  tried — but  in  vain — to  induce  some  of 
the  Middletown  lawyers  who  knew  him  well  to 
write  this  sketch. 


86 


JOSEPH  W.  GOTT. 
Bom  May  25,  1814.     Died  January  6,  1869. 

In  his  day  Mr,  Gott  was  a  power  in  this 
county.  His  influence  was  not  due  to  any  office 
or  position  which  he  held  but  to  the  inherent 
quaHties  of  the  man  himself.  His  health  was 
never  robust  and  for  a  number  of  years  prior  to 
his  death  he  had  to  husband  his  strength  care- 
fully: he  had  no  surplus  energy  to  devote  to 
pursuits  outside  of  his  own  business  matters  and 
those  of  his  clients.  Not  that  he  failed  to  take 
a  keen  interest  in  public  affairs  and  to  exert  all 
the  influence  of  his  strong  personality  and  com- 
manding ability  in  behalf  of  every  cause  that 
commended  itself  to  his  judgment  and  conscience 
— but  all  this  had  to  be  done  in  a  quiet  way. 

His  accurate  and  extensive  knowledge  of  the 
law  combined  with  sound  judgment  and  admir- 
able business  habits  led  to  his  employment  as 
counsel  in  most  of  the  heavy  transactions  which 
arose  in  the  western  end  of  the  county  and  I  feel 
justified  in  asserting  that  he  was  more  frequently 
called  upon  for  advice  by  his  fellow-lawyers  than 
was  any  other  lawyer  in  the  county  at  that  time. 

When  I  was  a  student  in  Goshen  in  1864-5, 
Mr.  Gott  was  in  declining  health.  He  knew  that 
his  days  were  numbered  and  must  be  few  but 
his  courage  never  failed  and  his  devotion  to  his 
business  never  flagged.  Day  after  day  he  was 
at  his  desk,  always  cheerful,  always  thoughtful 
of  others  and  never  demanding  or  expecting  any 
consideration  or  favors  on  account  of  the  condi- 
tion of  his  health.  In  fact  nothing  would  dis- 
turb him  more  quickly  than  an  intimation  that 
his  infirm  health  entitled  him  to  any  different 
treatment  from  that  extended  to  people  who  were 
well  and  vigorous.  And  so  he  went  to  his  death 
"without  fear  and  without  reproach"  at  the  com- 
paratively early  age  of  fifty-nine  years. 

Mr.  Gott  did  not  cultivate  litigated  business. 

8T 


When  compelled  to  look  after  a  client's  interests 
in  court  he  usually  associated  Judge  Gedney  with 
himself  and  the  two  together  made  a  combination 
of  very  unusual  ability.  In  his  early  practice  he 
is  reputed  to  have  tried  a  considerable  number 
of  cases  but  the  strain  upon  his  health  and  the 
tax  on  his  patience  led  him  later  to  forego  work 
of  that  sort.  In  fact  his  partnership  with  Samuel 
J.  Wilkin  during  the  early  years  of  his  career 
naturally  tended  to  develop  in  him  a  preference 
for  the  work  of  the  office  while  his  partner  looked 
after  the  court  business. 

Hon.  R.  C.  Coleman  was  managing  clerk  in 
Mr.  Gott's  office  for  some  four  years — 1865-8 — 
and  was  thus  brought  into  very  close  relations 
with  him  and  he  writes  thus  concerning  him: 
"His  kindly  consideration  and  helpfulness  to  me 
in  my  inexperience  *  *  *  were  in  keeping 
with  his  kindness  of  heart  and  his  unselfish 
nature  and  have  always  been  to  me  reason  for 
bearing  him  in  most  grateful  remembrance." 

The  subject  of  this  sketch  was  born  at 
Austerlitz,  Columbia  County,  N.  Y.  He  entered 
Union  College  in  1834  and  graduated  in  1837. 
Immediately  after  that  he  came  to  Goshen  and 
became  principal  of  Farmer's  Hall  Academy. 

Two  years  later  he  began  the  study  of  the  law 
and  entered  the  office  of  Van  Duzer  &  Sharpe. 
In  1842  he  was  admitted  to  the  bar  and  for  a 
number  of  years  during  his  early  career  he  was 
in  partnership  with  Samuel  J.  Wilkin. 

He  served  for  several  years  also  as  post  master 
at  Goshen  and  was,  at  one  time,  one  of  the 
proprietors  and  editors  of  The  Goshen  Democrat. 

His  intense  application  to  business  during  this 
period  of  his  life  is  thought  to  have  contributed 
to  the  illness  which  ultimately  caused  his  death. 

Shortly  after  Joseph  F.  Barnard,  of  Pough- 
keepsie,  was  elected — for  the  first  time — a  Justice 
of  the  Supreme  Court,  Stephen  W.  Fullerton 
was  questioned  in  regard  to  Barnard's  standing 

88 


JOSKPH    W.   OOTT 


as  a  lawyer.  The  query  was  "is  he  an  able  law- 
yer?" "Very  decidedly  so,"  replied  Fullerton. 
"As  good  a  lawyer  as  Mr.  Gott?"  was  the  next 
question.  The  answer  was,  "I  don't  know  about 
that — ']oe'  Gott  is  a  confoundedly  good  lawyer." 
This  shows  the  estimation  in  which  Mr.  Gott 
was  held  by  a  brother  lawyer  who  had  had 
abundant  opportunity  to  take  his  measure  and 
who  was  well  qualified  to  judge  as  to  his  ability. 


EUGENE  A.  BREWSTER. 

Born  in  New  York  City,  April  13,   1827. 
Died  December  14,  1898. 

In  Mr.  Brewster  were  combined  such  diverse 
traits  of  character  as  to  make  him  seem  like  two 
different  men.  In  his  office  and  in  all  business 
transaction  he  was  reserved,  austere,  distant 
and  seemingly  unsympathetic.  In  his  intercourse 
with  friends  where  the  restraints  of  business  were 
thrown  aside  he  was  companionable  and  genial. 
He  was  a  student  and  clerk  in  the  office  of  John 
W.  Brown  for  six  or  seven  years  and  would  seem 
to  have  been  to  some  extent  an  unconscious 
imitator  of  his  preceptor.  He  lacked,  however, 
the  power  of  influencing  his  fellow-men  by  his 
spoken  words  which  Judge  Brown  possessed  in 
such  a  pre-eminent  degree.  Before  a  referee  or 
a  judge  or  even  a  bench  of  judges  Mr.  Brewster 
argued  a  legal  question  well ;  but  before  a  jury 
he  was  not  at  all  successful.  His  manner  con- 
veyed the  impression  that  he  himself  did  not 
really  believe  the  propositions  which  he  was 
urging  the  jury  to  adopt.  In  other  words  he  did 
not  give  the  impression  of  being  in  dead  earnest. 
Not  that  there  was  anything  lirrht  or  trifling 
either  in  his  manner  or  in  the  substance  of  his 

89 


remarks.  It  was  rather  due  to  an  appearance  oi 
reserve;  he  did  not  seem  to  put  his  heart  and 
soul  into  it.  He  was  entirely  destitute  of 
"magnetism;"  yet  no  man  could  take  a  deeper 
concern  in  the  success  of  his  clients  or  guard 
their  interests  more  carefully  than  did  Mr.  Brew- 
ster. His  sense  of  what  was  due  from  a  lawyer 
to  his  clients  was  very  keen  as  was  also  his  sense 
of  what  was  due  to  the  lawyer  from  the  client. 
He  has  been  known  to  decline  to  do  business 
for  a  person  who  expressed  dissatisfaction  with 
his  charge  for  his  services.  His  idea  was  that 
as  soon  as  a  client  lacked  absolute  faith  in  his 
attorney's  integrity  and  good  judgment  the  re- 
lation should  terminate.  His  charges  for  legal 
services  were  never  excessive;  in  fact  they  were 
usually  less  than  might  have  been  properly  charg- 
ed by  a  lawyer  of  his  standing.  This  was  another 
of  the  traits  that  he  had  brought  with  him  from 
Judge  Brown's  office — and  it  continued  to  influ- 
ence him  strongly  as  long  as  he  lived.  Notwith- 
standing all  this  he  was  the  most  successful 
lawyer,  in  a  financial  way,  that  has  ever  been  a 
member  of  our  County  Bar  and  probably  of  any 
one  practicing  in  this  section  of  the  State. 
Starting  with  very  limited  means  he  accumulated 
a  very  handsome  fortune.  This  was  done  by  his 
own  unaided  efforts  and  without  any  profits  from 
speculative  ventures.  It  is  true  that  he  had  a 
succession  of  managing  clerks  in  his  office  who 
all  (save  one  who  died  early)  became,  later  in 
life,  successful  and  able  lawyers,  but  this  does 
not  detract  from  the  credit  due  Mr.  Brewster  for 
so  organizing  and  conducting  his  business  that  it 
was  largely  profitable.  Neither  was  his  accumu- 
lation of  wealth  due  to  any  miserly  economy.  He 
was  a  liberal  giver  to  causes  or  people  that  he 
felt  deserved  it,  and  a  free  and  generous  liver. 
It  is  true  he  did  not  "carry  his  heart  on  his 
sleeve"  but  whenever  an  appeal  was  made  to  him 
which  his  judgment  approved  of  he  was  willing 

90 


EUOKNR   A,   P.nKWSTRR 


and  able  to  give  assistance  and  to  give  liberally. 
There  are  lawyers  a  plenty  who  are  alivays 
willing  to  "lend  a  hand"  but  never  able  to  do 
much.  Mr.  Brewster  was  not  a  promiscuous 
giver — (or  lender,  which  often  amounts  to  the 
same  thing  in  the  end) — but  was  always  able  to 
do  what  the  situation  demanded. 

For  a  number  of  years — say  from  i860  to 
1870 — the  important  office  business  of  this  county 
was  done  largely  by  Mr.  Brewster  at  Newburgh 
and  Mr.  Gott  at  Goshen.  They  were  both  excel- 
lent lawyers,  both  very  prompt  and  diligent  in 
attending  to  business,  always  ready  to  meet  en- 
gagements on  time  and  very  seldom,  if  ever, 
asking  postponements.  They  resembled  each 
other  too,  in  this,  that  they  were  very  skillful 
pleaders.  Documents  prepared  by  either  of  them 
were  invariably  brief,  crisp  and  admirably  ex- 
pressed. It  is  worthy  of  remark  that  these  two 
office  lawyers  were  much  more  successful  in 
getting  and  retaining  a  fair  reward  for  their  labor" 
than  were  their  more  famous  and  conspicuous 
professional  friends  the  "court  lawyers"  who 
practiced  side  by  side  with  them. 

Mr.  Brewster  was  for  many  years  the  attorney 
and  a  director  of  The  National  Bank  of  New- 
burgh and  attorney  for  the  Newburgh  Savings 
Bank.  He  was  a  Warden  of  St.  George's  Protes- 
tant Episcopal  Church  and  deeply  interested  in 
its  prosperity.  He  held  no  public  office  except 
such  as  were  connected  with  our  local  city  affairs. 

His  career  can  be  summed  up  in  these  words: 
"He  was  devoted  to  his  profession  and  was  an 
able,  honorable  and  successful  lawyer." 


91 


(The  following  sketch   was   prepared   by   Hon. 
William  Graham,  L.  L.  D.,  of  Dubuque,  Iowa.) 

HON.  WILLIAM  C.  HASBROUCK. 
Born  August  23,  1800.      Died  November  5,  1870. 

Like  General  Borland  and  Judge  McKissock, 
William  C.  Hasbrouck  was  a  native  of  the  Town 
of  Montgomery  and  like  them,  also  was  educated 
at  Montgomery  Academy;  thence  he  went  to 
Union  College,  from  which  he  was  graduated 
with  distinguished  honor  in  1822,  After  his  ad- 
mission to  the  bar  he  settled  in  Newburgh  and 
the  rest  of  his  life  was  passed  in  close  connection 
with  its  activities.  He  was  a  close  student,  an 
accurate  lawyer,  a  thorough  man  of  business,  and 
of  untiring  industry.  After  many  years  of  suc- 
cessful practice,  he  gradually  withdrew  from 
litigated  business,  and  devoted  himself  to  the 
management  of  the  financial  affairs  of  his  numer- 
ous clients.  His  management  of  these  affairs 
was  so  careful  and  sagacious  that  his  business 
attained  large  proportions.  I  remember  hearing 
it  said  that  he  was  the  best  real  estate  lawyer  in 
Orange  County  if  not  in  the  Judicial  District. 

Either  his  partner,  or  one  of  his  clerks  told  me 
that  he  kept  a  copy  of  every  negotiable  instru- 
ment that  ever  passed  through  his  hands,  and  an 
abstract  of  any  deed  or  mortgage ;  and  they  were 
so  filed  away  and  indexed  that  in  a  few  minutes 
he  could  produce  any  of  them,  and  the  array  of 
boxes,  two  or  three  shelves  deep  around  his 
office,  made  it  easy  to  believe  the  statement. 

A  polished  gentleman  of  graceful  manners,  of 
easy  address,  and  an  interesting  speaker,  delight- 
ful in  conversation,  overflowing  with  anecdote, 
a  genial  companion,  an  accomplished  host,  I  have 
met  few  men  whom  I  admired  more  than  the 
subject  of  this  sketch.  His  manner  toward  the 
younger  members  of  the  bar,  and  students  of 
law,  was  most  agreeable.     There  was  none  of 

92 


W  Il^IvIAM    (".    IIASHKOUCK 


that  haughty  condescension,  or  frigid  dignity 
that  some  assume,  nor  on  the  other  hand,  was 
there  any  lowering  of  the  consciousness  of  what 
was  due  to  himself  by  reason  of  his  age  and  exper- 
ience. His  attitude  and  action  seemed  to  say, 
"Boys,  I  have  been  one  of  you  myself.  I  know 
just  how  you  feel  and  expect  some  day  I  will 
meet  you  on  the  same  plane  with  myself." 

At  the  October,  1855,  General  Term,  Mr. 
Hasbrouck  was  chairman  of  the  committee  to 
examine  applicants  for  admission  to  the  bar, 
among  them  John  Miller  and  John  D.  Gurnee 
from  his  own  ofBce,  He  did  not  spare  them  any 
more  than  the  others.  (I  did  not  apply  at  that 
term,  not  feeling  myself  competent ;  possibly  I 
felt  that  if  I  failed  to  pass  I  would  rather  fail  at 
some  other  place  than  at  my  own  home,  so  I 
waited  till  the  January  term  at  Brooklyn, 
Nevertheless,  at  their  persistent  solicitation,  I 
"crammed"  two  young  fellows,  Frank  P.  DeWint 
and  Henry  E.  Davies,  Jr.,  for  their  examination 
and  they  passed).  At  the  close  of  the  examina- 
tion Mr.  Hasbrouck  gave  a  short  talk  of  advice 
to  the  class,  one  sentence  of  which  has  always 
stuck  in  my  memory :  "Young  gentlemen!  Learn 
all  the  tricks  of  the  law,  but  never  practice  any 
of  them."  This  was  strictly  in  accord  with  his 
own  conduct,  for  I  do  not  believe  that  the  roll 
of  the  New  York  bar  contains  the  name  of  one 
who  was  more  honorable  in  his  practice,  or  who 
observed  with  greater  or  more  punctilious  recti- 
tude the  ethics  of  his  profession  than  the  subject 
of  this  sketch. 

Mr.  Hasbrouck  once  gave  mc  this  leaf  from 
his  own  experience.  A  client  in  Dutchess  County 
entertained  some  fears  as  to  the  validity  of  his 
title  to  his  farm,  and  he  told  him  to  bring  out  his 
deeds,  which  he  did  a  day  or  two  afterward,  a 
bushel  basket  full.  The  counsellor  examined 
them  all  with  his  usual  circumspection,  and 
wrote  an  opinion  sustaining  the  validity  of  his 


title.  In  this  examination  he  found  inside  of 
one  of  the  old  deeds,  three  one  hundred  dollar 
bills  of  the  Bank  of  Newburgh  of  the  issue  of 
1817.  He  placed  these  in  a  drawer,  and  when 
his  client  came  over  he  read  his  opinion,  at  which 
the  client  was  delighted.  He  then  asked  Mr. 
Hasbrouck  the  amount  of  his  fee,  and  he  answer- 
ed that  in  examining  the  papers  he  had  found 
some  old  documents  that  had  no  reference  to  the 
title,  but  as  he  was  himself  something  of  an 
antiquarian  these  were  of  some  value  to  him,  and 
with  his  client's  permission  he  would  accept  them 
in  full  payment.  The  client  was  glad  to  get  off 
so  easy,  and  expressed  himself  as  more  than 
satisfied,  and  was  about  to  depart,  when  the 
counsellor  suggested  that  perhaps  he  had  better 
see  the  documents  himself,  and  produced  the 
bank  notes  at  which  the  client  was  thunder- 
struck. They  took  them  to  the  bank  which 
promptly  redeemed  them,  though  they  had  been 
out  of  the  bank  for  a  third  of  a  century.  The 
client  would  have  had  the  lawyer  keep  them  as 
he  had  said,  but  Mr.  Hasbrouck  refused,  but  did 
accept  one  of  them.  Subsequently  his  client  in- 
formed him  that  after  the  family  had  talked  it 
over,  it  was  recalled  that  his  father  had  furnished 
Poughkeepsie  with  some  sloop  loads  of  cobble- 
stone in  1817  to  pave  some  of  its  streets,  and 
complained  that  in  the  final  settlment  he  had 
been  in  some  way  beaten  out  of  $300.00. 
He  had  probably  got  the  deed  from  the  clerk's 
office  that  same  day  and  placed  the  notes  in  it 
for  safe  keeping,  and  forgot  what  he  had  done 
with  them. 

Mr.  Hasbrouck  was  a  Whig  in  his  early  days 
and  was  the  candidate  of  that  party  for  Congress 
in  the  great  contest  of  1844,  but  was  beaten  by 
General  Niven  of  Sullivan  County.  In  1846  he 
was  elected  to  the  Legislature,  over  my  father, 
and  was  chosen  Speaker  of  the  Assembly  of  1847, 
and  I  have  heard  from  members  of  that  body 

94 


many  commendations  for  the  urbanity  and  im- 
partiality with  which  he  presided  over  its 
deHberations. 

The  following  incident  illustrative  of  his 
character  was  related  to  me  by  one  of  the  officers 
of  the  defrauded  bank : 

"Mr,  Hasbrouck  took  a  great  interest  in  a 
young  friend  of  his  and  aided  him  largely,  and 
placed  him  in  a  position  which  enabled  him  to 
defraud  a  bank  with  which  Mr.  Hasbrouck  had 
extensive  dealings  out  of  a  large  sum  of  money. 
When  this  came  to  light,  and  the  walls  of  the 
penitentiary  loomed  large  before  the  young  man, 
Mr.  Hasbrouck  voluntarily  made  good  to  the 
bank  the  amount  of  its  loss,  and  by  his  influence 
and  watchfulness  brought  the  young  man,  whom 
he  had  saved  from  imprisonment  back  to  the 
paths  of  integrity  and  usefulness :  Saving  thus 
'a  soul  from  death,  and  hiding  a  multitude  of 
sins'." 

ADDENDA  BY  W.  C.  A. 

The  foregoing  sketch  of  Mr.  Hasbrouck's 
career,  prepared  by  Mr.  Graham,  seems  to  me  so 
just  and  so  well  expressed  that  I  have  adopted  it 
without  change.  It  requires  however  a  few 
words  of  explanation,  and  a  slight  correction. 
The  "General  Term,"  at  the  time  mentioned  by 
Mr.  Graham,  and  for  many  years  afterwards,  was 
held  in  October  of  each  year  at  Newburgh;  in 
May  at  Poughkeepsie ;  and  the  other  terms  (two) 
were  held  at  Brooklyn. 

Mr.  Hasbrouck  did  not  come  to  Newburgh 
directly  from  college.  Soon  after  graduating  he 
became  Principal  of  the  Academy  at  Franklin, 
Tennessee.  A  year  or  two  later  he  removed  to 
Goshen,  N.  Y.,  and  became  Principal  of  the 
Farmers'  Hall  Academy. — At  Goshen  he  studied 
law  and  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  1826. 

Mr.  Graham  has  stated  in  his  sketch  of  Judp;e 
Monell,  what  I  believe  to  be  the  main  reason  why 
Mr.    Hasbrouck    withdrew,    as    he    did    almost 

05 


entirely,  from  litigated  practice  and  engaged  in 
the  work  of  investing  money  for  his  many 
wealthy  clients.  He  was  a  very  sensitive  man 
and  did  not  enjoy  the  asperities  of  active  litiga- 
tion. There  were  other  reasons  at  that  time  due 
to  the  character  and  unusual  strength  of  the 
competition  which  any  one  seeking  to  succeed  as 
a  trial  lawyer  had  to  meet.  He  drifted  into  this 
real  estate  business  probably  between  1840  and 
1850. 

John  W.  Brown,  then  the  leader  of  our  bar, 
was  in  his  prime;  McKissock,  in  some  respects 
his  superior,  was  in  active  practice;  Samuel  J. 
Wilkin,  the  peer  of  either  of  them,  was  still  a 
formidable  competitor ;  Gedney  and  Winfield  and 
William  Fullerton  were  rapidly  rising  to  promi- 
nence at  the  bar  of  the  county.  It  was  no  place 
for  anybody  to  compete  unless  he  loved  the  fray 
and  feared  no  foe. 

Another  fact,  or  group  of  facts,  that  probably 
influenced  Mr.  Hasbrouck  in  choosing  the  special 
line  of  work  in  which  he  engaged  was  his  wide 
family  connection  both  on  his  own  side  and 
among  his  wife's  relatives  with  people  of  large 
wealth  who  had  money  to  invest.  In  that  day  it 
was  not  as  easy  to  invest  money  with  seeming 
safety  as  it  has  been  of  late  years.  There  were 
few  railroad  bonds,  if  any — municipal  bonds  were 
almost  unknown — and  public  utility  bonds  had 
not  been  dreamed  of.  This  part  of  the  State 
would  not  absorb  any  more  money  on  good  bonds 
and  mortgages.  Mr.  Hasbrouck  therefore  turned 
to  the  western  part  of  the  State  for  mortgage  in- 
vestments and  I  have  understood  on  good  author- 
ity that  so  long  as  he  continued  in  charge  of  the 
business  himself,  which  was  for  many  years,  not 
a  penny  of  his  clients*  money,  principal  or  inter- 
est, was  lost.  His  integrity  was  proverbial.  He 
enjoyed  the  absolute  confidence  of  his  clients. 
His  carefulness  was  extreme.  For  instance,  he  al- 
ways required  the  mortgagor  (and  his  wife  if  she 

96 


liK.NJAMlN    l'.    I'UUVhIA 


joined  in  the  mortgage)  to  make  affidavit  that 
he — or  they — were  severally  upwards  of  twenty- 
one  years  old.  On  one  occasion  the  mortgagor 
forgot  that  he  had  made  such  an  affidavit  and 
threatened  to  defend  a  foreclosure  suit  on  the 
plea  of  infancy,  but  changed  his  mind  at  once 
when  his  affidavit  was  produced.  Nothing  but 
pity  for  his  family  on  Mr.  Hasbrouck's  part 
saved  the  rascal  from  indictment. 

William  C.  Hasbrouck  was  an  ornament  and 
a  credit  to  the  bar  of  this  county. 


(The  following  sketch  was  prepared  by  Hon. 
R.  C.  Coleman). 

BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN  DURYEA. 

Benjamin  Franklin  Duryea  who  was  born  in 
the  Town  of  Blooming  Grove  was  the  son  of 
James  Duryea  and  Mary  Heard  Duryea  and 
prepared  for  college  at  the  Montgomery  Acad- 
emy, entered  Union  College  in  the  Junior  class 
in  his  eighteenth  year  and  graduated  in  the  class 
of  1835,  with  high  honors  and  especial  encomiums 
from  the  faculty  for  having  delivered  the  ablest 
oration  in  Hebrew  ever  heard  from  an  alumnus 
of  the  college.  After  graduation  he  was  Princi- 
pal of  the  Montgomery  Academy  for  a  short  time, 
then  studied  medicine  for  awhile,  but,  finding  it 
distasteful,  took  up  the  study  of  the  law  in  the 
office  of  Van  Duzer  &  Sharpe  and  was  admitted 
to  the  bar  in  the  winter  of  1839. 

He  was  elected  Surrogate  of  the  county  and 
later  a  County  Judge.  While  Surrogate  he 
established  the  power  of  that  Court  to  punish 
by  imprisonment  contempt  of  its  decrees,  his 
decision  being  confirmed  by  the  Court  of  Appeals. 

Mr.  Duryea  stood  high  in  the  estimation  of 
his  fellow-lawyers  as  being  well  read  and  ground- 
ed  in  legal  principles  and   a   safe  adviser.       In 

P7 


manners  he  was  always  courteous  and  consider- 
ate. At  the  time  of  his  death,  in  1872,  in  the 
fifty-seventh  year,  he  was  the  senior  partner  in 
the  firm  of  Duryea  &  Bacon,  having  continuously 
practiced  law  in  Goshen  since  he  began. 


BENJAMIN  F.  DUNNING. 

During  the  ten  years,  or  thereabouts,  that  Mr. 
Dunning  had  his  office  at  Goshen  he  attained  a 
position  at  our  Bar  which  fully  entitles  him  to 
be  classed  among  the  distinguished  lawyers  of 
this  county;  and  his  reputation  was  maintained 
and  enhanced  after  he  removed  to  New  York 
City.  He  was  born  in  the  Town  of  Minisink 
on  April  15th,  18 19,  and  graduated  from  Union 
College  in  the  class  of  1840. 

For  several  years  after  graduating  he  studied 
law  at  Goshen  in  the  office  of  Wescott  &  Gedney 
and  then  opened  an  office  of  his  own.  This  he 
maintained  until  the  year  1853  when  he  removed 
to  New  York  City  to  become  assistant  to  Charles 
O'Connor  who  was  then  United  States  District 
Attorney — (Southern  District  of  New  York) — 
and  who  was  one  of  the  leaders  of  the  bar  of 
this  country.  Shortly  after  this  he  entered  into 
partnership  with  Mr.  O'Connor  and  at  the  same 
time,  or  about  the  same  time,  William  Fullerton 
became  a  member  of  the  co-partnership,  the  firm 
name  being  O'Connor,  Fullerton  &  Dunning. 
Thenceforth  his  professional  career  was  devoted 
to  his  work  in  New  York  City  though  he  continu- 
ed to  maintain  a  summer  home  in  this  county 
during  his  v/hole  life-time. 

Mr.  Dunning  was  one  of  the  most  thorough- 
goins;  business  men  I  have  ever  met.  Figuratively 
speaking  he  never  failed  to  dot  an  "i"  or  to  cross 
a  "t".  This  trait  was  shown  even  in  his  use 
and    pronunciation    of    words.       He    was    very 


lii;X.I.\.MI.\      |-.      Ur.NNl.NC 


4 


careful  to  choose  the  precise  word  he  needed  and 
in  pronouncing  a  word  he  never  slurred  a  single 
syllable.  This  tendency  to  great  accuracy  and 
thoroughness  appeared  to  mark  all  his  trans- 
actions and  made  him  a  most  excellent  coun- 
sellor. 

During  his  stay  in  this  county  it  was  his 
custom  to  associate  William  Fullerton  with  him 
in  the  trial  of  his  important  cases  and  the  two 
men  made  a  combination  which  it  would  be 
difficult  to  equal  anywhere. 

My  personal  acquaintance  with  Mr.  Dunning 
though  slight  was  sufficient  to  enable  me  to  state 
that  he  was  a  high  toned,  urbane  gentleman 
whose  manners  were  charming  and  whose  con- 
versation was  delightful.  For  a  number  of  years 
during  my  earlier  practice  the  firm  was  Dunning, 
Edsall  &  Hart ;  later  it  became  Dunning,  Edsall, 
Hart  &  Fowler.  The  last  named  being  the  son- 
in-law  of  Mr.  Dunning  and  in  recent  years,  until 
his  death,  the  President  of  the  New  York, 
Ontario  &  Western  Railroad. 

Mr.  Dunning  was  prominent  in  New  York 
City,  not  only  professionally  but  socially.  He 
was  an  Elder  in  the  "Brick  Church"  (Presby- 
terian) at  Fifth  Avenue  and  Thirty-seventh 
Street  for  forty  years. 

His  death  occurred  on  October  i6th,  1896,  at 
his  home  in  New  York  City. 


JAMES  G.  GRAHAM. 

It  was  my  privilege  to  know  the  subject  of  this 
sketch  intimately  during?:  the  last  twenty  or 
twenty-five  years  of  his  life, — in  fact  from  the 
time  he  removed  to  Ncwburgh  in  1866  until  his 
death — and  it  is  a  "labor  of  love"  to  write  about 
him.     He   had    those   traits   of   character   which 

00 


were  sure  to  win  the  affection  of  anybody  who 
came  to  know  him  well.  I  doubt  if  he  had  an 
enemy  in  the  world — nor  can  I  conceive  of  his 
doing  or  saying  anything  that  would  justify  any 
person  entertaining  an  unfriendly  feeling  toward 
him.  Full  of  kindness,  geniality,  cheerfulness 
and  unselfishness  he  was  an  ideal  companion,  a 
loyal  friend,  a  model  citizen,  an  urbane  gentle- 
man and  a  sincere  Christian.  A  young  lady  once 
said  of  him  that  he  was  "the  dearest  little  man 
in  the  world"  and  she  wasn't  far  wrong. 

He  was  witty,  suggestive,  well  read,  and 
possessed  of  a  keen  appreciation  of  good  litera- 
ture— and  these  qualities,  joined  to  a  pleasant 
and  easy  manner  of  speaking,  caused  him  to  be 
listened  to  with  pleasure  whenever  he  addressed 
an  audience.  "Stump  speaking"  was  much  more 
of  a  feature  in  political  campaigns  years  ago 
than  it  is  now  and  Mr.  Graham  was  very  often 
called  upon  to  assist  in  that  line  of  v/ork. 
For  many  years  no  political  campaign  of  im- 
portance was  conducted  without  addresses  by 
him  being  heard  in  most  of  the  villages  of  this 
county  and  of  Southern  Ulster.  As  an  after- 
dinner  speaker  he  had  few  rivals  and  no  superior 
in  this  part  of  the  world. 

I  cannot  but  think  that  it  was  unfortunate  for 
Mr.  Graham  that  he  began  his  professional  life  in 
a  little,  isolated  country  village — Shawangunk, 
now  Wallkill,  where  he  had  no  competition.  If 
there  had  been  a  good,  active,  energetic  lawyer 
residing  in  that  same  community  it  would  have 
developed  in  Mr.  Graham  a  more  combative 
spirit,  greater  self-assertion  and  more  readiness 
in  the  use  of  his  resources. 

The  imperfect  development  of  these  qualities 
in  him  interfered  with  his  success  as  a  trial  law- 
yer. It  may  be  that  his  removal  from  Ulster 
County  to  Orange  when  he  had  reached  middle 
age  also  had  an  influence  in  preventing  him  from 
attaining  that  position  among  the  prominent  trial 

100 


.lAMKS  r;    rjRAHAM 


V 

lawyers  of  this  county  which  his  ability  and 
character  entitled  him  to  hold. 

He  came  to  Newburgh  when  he  was  nearly 
forty-five  years  old  and  it  is  not  easy — usually 
not  possible — for  any  lawyer  at  that  age,  to  build 
up  a  business  in  a  new  place.  Whatever  the 
reason  was  it  is  undoubtedly  a  fact  that  Mr. 
Graham  appeared  less  frequently  in  connection 
with  litigated  business  in  the  courts  of  this 
county  than  might  have  been  anticipated  on  the 
part  of  a  man  of  his  gifts.  To  some  extent  he 
retained  his  clientage  among  Ulster  County 
people  and  was  active  in  the  courts  there  to  a 
greater  degree,  I  think,  than  he  was  in  our 
county. 

As  a  counsellor  he  was  careful,  painstaking  and 
safe  and  this  branch  of  his  practice  would  have 
been,  in  the  hands  of  any  one  less  scrupulously 
honest  than  he,  the  source  of  an  income  much 
larger  than  it  yielded  him.     As  he  managed  it 

"Along  the  cool  sequestered  vale  of  life 
He  kept  the  noiseless  tenor  of  his  way" 

receiving  the  blessing  prayed  for  by  Agur  of  old 
who  said,  "Give  me  neither  poverty  nor  riches." 

He  was  a  member  of  the  Assembly  from  Ulster 
County  for  one  term  and  from  Orange  County 
for  two  terms,  and  was  the  City  Attorney  for  the 
City  of  Newburgh  for  six  years.  He  was  a 
director  of  the  Middletown  State  Asvhim  and 
one  of  the  Trustees  of  Washington's  Headquar- 
ters at  Newburgh.  This  completes  the  list,  I 
think,  of  the  public  offices  held  by  one  who  would 
have  graced  any  station  to  which  he  might  have 
been  elect^ed. 

The  subject  of  this  sketch  was  born  at  Shawnn- 
gunk,  N.  Y.,  on  October  29.  1821.  His  early 
education  was  obtained  at  the  common  school  of 
his  native  p'ace  and  later  at  the  Newburgh 
Academy.  After  n;radunting  at  that  institution 
he  entered  Columbia  College  and  there  graduated 

ini 


in  1840.  He  studied  law  at  Newburgh  with 
Bate  &  McKissock  until  1843  when  he  was 
licensed.  From  that  time  until  1866  his  office 
was  in  his  native  village  but  in  the  last  named 
year  he  removed  to  Newburgh  and  there  continu- 
ed to  reside  and  have  his  office  for  the  remainder 
of  his  life. 

Death  came  to  him  on  January  19,  1896,  very 
peacefully  but  suddenly  though  he  had  been  in 
poor  health  for  several  months.  He  died  respect- 
ed by  all  and  beloved  by  all  who  knew  him  well. 
Peace  be  to  his  memory.  May  the  forget-me-not 
and  the  amaranth  grow  upon  his  grave  as  em- 
blems of  the  lasting  remembrance  in  which  he 
deserves  to  be  held. 


DAVID  A.  SCOTT. 

David  A.  Scott  was  the  son  of  James  Scott. 
He  was  born  in  the  Town  of  Montgomery, 
Orange  County,  N.  Y.,  August  18,  1825,  and 
died  suddenly  at  Indian  Lake,  in  the  Adiron- 
dacks,  August  24,  1890.  During  the  interval  of 
sixty-five  years  covered  by  these  dates,  but  more 
especially  during  his  active  manhood,  his  experi- 
ences and  his  usefulness  were  varied.  After 
graduating  at  the  Montgomery  Academy  and 
subsequently  at  Wesleyan  University,  he  taught 
school  for  some  years  in  South  Carolina,  but 
ultimately  took  up  the  study  of  law  in  Newburgh, 
and  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  1856. 

Thirty-four  years  of  professional  life  and  the 
manner  in  which  it  was  passed  won  for  him  not 
only  reasonable  success,  but  gained  for  him  the 
respect  and  esteem  of  his  contemporaries  and 
the  confidence  of  the  public.  He  had  no  eminent 
rank  as  a  trial  lawyer,  but  was  one  whose  integ- 
rity was  without  question  and  whose  judgment 

103 


1>A\'1L)  A.   SCOTT 


was  a  safe  reliance.  Moreover  his  aptitude  in 
unraveling  accounts — even  the  most  intricate — 
was  phenomenal ;  and  this  faculty,  in  combination 
with  his  judicial  mind,  his  courteous  manner  and 
his  keen  sense  of  equity,  made  him  an  ideal 
Surrogate. 

Mr.  Scott  held  the  office  of  Surrogate  of  the 
county  for  two  terms  (January,  iS6o,  to  January, 
1866),  and  at  their  expiration  entered  into  part- 
nership with  M.  H.  Hirschberg,  under  the  firm 
name  of  Scott  &  Hirschberg,  in  which  relation 
he  remained  until  his  death,  devoting  his  atten- 
tion especially  to  office  work,  including  very 
largely  the  settlement  of  estates  and  references 
involving  important  and  complicated  questions. 
For  the  vocation  of  an  advocate  he  had  no  marked 
aptitude. 

Aside  from  his  professional  life  Mr.  Scott  took 
an  interest  in  the  influences  in  society  having  for 
their  object  the  elevation  of  his  fellows.  He  was 
an  active  member  of  St.  George's  Episcopal 
Church,  filling  acceptably  the  post  of  Lay  Reader 
when  service  in  that  capacity  was  required,  and 
also  that  of  Superintendent  of  the  Sunday  School. 
When  death  came  to  him  it  found  him  in  the 
field  promoting  the  success  of  the  Mission  of  his 
Church,  now  the  Church  of  the  Good  Shepherd. 
Next  to  his  church  he  was  a  devotee  of  the 
ancient  and  honorable  order  of  Free  and  Accepted 
Masons.  His  service  as  a  Trustee  of  Common 
Schools  from  1887  to  the  time  of  his  death  was 
of  unquestionable  advantage  to  the  schools  and 
to  the  public,  and  in  private  walks  his  charities 
were  many. 

Regarding  Mr.  Scott's  life  as  a  whole  the 
evidence  is  cumulative  that  he  wasted  neither 
his  powers  or  his  opportunities  for  usefulness — - 
that  the  mean  goal,  "thvself,"  did  not  bound  his 
vision  or  confine  his  hand — that  the  force  of  his 
example  remains  and  will  remain  even  though 
his  name  shall  wholly  perish.     Of  him  it  may  be 

103 


said  with  truth  that  he  was  a  loyal  friend,  a 
useful  citizen,  a  genial  companionable  gentleman. 


ABRAM  S.  CASSEDY 

was  born  at  Ramapo,  Rockland  County,  N.  Y., 
on  November  29th,  1833.  He  graduated  from 
the  State  Normal  School  in  1853,  and  after  study- 
ing law  with  a  Rockland  County  lawyer  for  a 
short  time  he  came  to  Goshen  and  continued  his 
legal  studies  with  Wilkin  &  Gott  at  Goshen. 
In  1857  he  was  admitted  to  practice  as  an  attor- 
ney and  counsellor.  For  two  years  thereafter 
he  was  the  Deputy  County  Clerk  of  this  county. 
In  1859  he  removed  to  the  City  of  Newburgh  and 
embarked  in  practice  on  his  own  account.  His 
success  here  was  marked  from  the  first  and  he 
acquired  so  good  a  standing  at  the  bar  that  in 
1862  he  was  elected  District  Attorney — (on  the 
Democratic  ticket).  He  held  that  office  until 
January  ist,  1866.  This  was  immediately  after 
the  Civil  War  when  the  whole  country  was  in  an 
unsettled  and  disorderly  condition. 

At  that  time  there  was  no  Assistant  District 
Attorney  in  this  county  and  no  stenographer  to 
take  grand  jury  minutes.  Mr.  Cassedy's  official 
duties  consequently  demanded  an  amount  of  at- 
tention and  labor  that  would  have  discouraged 
most  men.  He  had  to  be  before  the  grand  jury 
nearly  all  day  and  at  night  until  "some  wee  sma* 
hour"  was  hard  at  work  preparing  indictments. 
His  faithful  discharge  of  the  duties  of  his  office 
under  such  discouraging  circumstances  entitled 
him  to  much  credit. 

In  1880  he  was  ejected  Mayor  of  the  City  of 
Newburgh.  This  office  he  resij5:ned  after  a  few 
months — thus  contradicting  Andrew  Ja'^kson's 
assertion  about  office  holders  that  "few  die  and 

104 


AnilAM  S.  CASSEDY 


none  resign."  The  two  offices  above  mentioned 
were  the  most  important  ones  civer  held  by  Mr. 
Cassedy.  His  death  occurred  on  April  29.  rSgG. 
For  some  ten  or  twelve  years  prior  to  his  death 
he  was  in  partnership  with  Charles  F.  Brown  and 
the  ability  and  trustworthiness  of  the  members 
of  the  firm  together  with  the  continuing  influence 
of  the  fame  of  John  W.  Brown  resulted  in  bring- 
ing a  heavy  and  profitable  business  to  their  office. 

In  1885  the  mortgage  against  the  West  Shore 
Railway — theretofore  the  New  York,  West 
Shore  and  Buffalo  Railway — was  foreclosed  and 
Mr.  Cassedy  was  appointed  the  referee  to  sell  the 
property  and  to  distribute  the  proceeds.  The 
sale  took  place  in  the  Court  room  of  the  New- 
burgh  Court  House  and  the  property  sold  for 
twenty-two  millions  of  dollars.  These  figures 
completely  dazed  the  auctioneer  who  was  a  Nev/- 
burgh  man  and  not  accustomed  to  "think  in 
millions"  and  he  kept  announcing  the  bid  as 
twenty-two  thousand  dollars  until  Chauncey  M. 
Depew,  the  bidder,  corrected  him  three  times. 
In  distributing  the  proceeds  of  this  sale  Mr. 
Cassedy  drew  one  check  for  over  a  million  dol- 
lars. This  he  had  framed  later  on  when  it  had 
gone  through  the  bank  and  it  still  hangs  in  the 
office  of  his  son,  William  F.  Cassedy.  Up  to  that 
time  it  was  believed  to  be  the  largest  amount 
covered  by  a  single  check  drawn  on  any  bank  in 
Orange  County — I  think  that  is  still  true. 

Mr.  Cassedy  left  two  sons  one  of  whom  is  still 
living  and  is  a  prominent  member  of  the  Orange 
County  Bar. 


HENRY  BACON. 

Born  March   14,   1846  at  Brooklyn,   N.  Y. 
Died   March   25,    1915. 

In    August,    1862,    Mr.    Bacon    and    I    entered 
Union  College  on  the  same  day, — he  in  the  sopho- 

KX'. 


more  class  of  the  classical  course  and  I  in  the 
junior  class  of  the  scientific  course. 

The  latter  course  at  that  time  covered  but  three 
years  and  consequently  the  unfriendly  relations 
which  usually  exist  between  the  members  of  one 
class  and  those  of  the  class  next  above  or  below 
their  own  was  confined  chiefly  to  the  students  in 
the  classical  course.  The  "scientific"  sopho- 
mores were  really  freshmen  or  in  other  words 
had  just  begun  their  college  career.  Most  of  my 
own  intimate  'acquaintances  were  in  the  class 
behind  my  owr,  I  ma.'e  Mr.  Bacon's  acquaint- 
ance very  soon  aiter  we  entered  college  and  when, 
at  the  end  of  my  junior  year  his  roommate  left 
college  and  he  invited  me  to  share  his  room  I 
accepted  with  pleasure.  We  were  "chums"  dur- 
ing my  senior  year  and  our  relations  were  very 
pleasant  and  friendly  during  all  that  time  and 
afterwards  as  long  as  he  lived. 

Even  at  that  early  day  everybody  who  came 
in  contact  with  him  was  impressed  by  his  ability 
and  the  soundness  of  his  judgment.  He  was 
one  of  the  youngest  men  in  his  class  but  one  of 
the  most  mature.  There  was  never  anything  of 
the  "mollycoddle"  about  him.  Self-reliant  and 
courageous  to  a  marked  degree  he  was  always 
prepared  to  give  a  reason  for  any  theorv  he  held 
and  to  maintain  it  against  all  comers.  He  was  a 
good  student,  more  inclined  to  "the  humanities" 
than  to  mathematics,  bvit  good  all  around.  His 
standing  in  his  class  was  excellent  and  he  gradu- 
ated in  the  first  rank. 

At  the  time  of  his  graduation  I  had  been  study- 
ing in  Judge  Gedney's  office  for  a  year  amid 
most  delightful  surroundings  and  .as  I  intended 
to  leave  Goshen  in  the  course  of  a  few  weeks 
I  wrote  to  Mr.  Bacon  advising  him  to  become  my 
successor  in  the  office.  This  he  did.  Our  stay 
at  Goshen  overlapped  each  other  for  two  or  three 
months  and  during  that  time  we  were  "chums" 
again. 

106 


iii;.\i;\'    r.  \i'<'.\ 


Mr.  Bacon  completed  his  studies  in  time  to  be 
examined  at  the  *"General  Term"  held  at  Brook- 
lyn in  December,  18&6.  He  passed  with  flying 
colors  but  being  under  twenty-one  years  of  age 
could  not  be  sworn  in  until  he  attained  his 
majority.  Soon  after  his  admission  he  took  two 
important  steps  in  his  career, — he  married  and 
formed  a  business  co-partnership — Miss  Helen 
Brandreth  of  Ossining,  N.  Y.,  became  his  wife 
and  Benjamin  F.  Duryea,  of  Goshen,  N.  Y.,  be- 
came his  partner.  Mr.  Duryea  was  a  well  known 
lawyer  in  that  part  of  the  county  and  had  been 
Surrogate  of  the  county  and  County  Judge.  His 
ability  as  an  office  lawyer  was,  recognized  by  all 
the  lawyers  in  the  county.  Judge  G-dney  and 
Mr.  Gott  both  stated  to  me  that  in  their  opinion 
he  had  the  finest  legal  mind  of  any  man  then 
practicing  at  our  bar.  This  partnership  con- 
tinued for  several  years  under  the  firm  name  of 
Duryea  &  Bacon.  Then  Judge  Duryea's  son, 
Henry,  was  taken  into  the  firm  and  it  became 
Duryea,  Bacon  &  Duryea.  Later,  when  Judge 
Duryea  died  the  firm  name  became  Bacon  &  Dur- 
yea. Mr.  Joseph  Merritt  and  Mr.  Philip  Rorty 
subsequently  became  partners  with  Mr.  Bacon — 
and  that  brings  the  history  of  his  business  con- 
nections down  to  the  close  of  his  life. 

An  incident  which  occurred  while  Mr.  Bacon 
and  I  were  fellow-students  in  Judge  Gedncy's 
office  was  thoroughly  characteristic  of  him 
whether  as  boy  or  man.  He  had  been  "reading 
law"  for  about  a  month  when  one  day  a  farmer 
from  the  Town  of  Warwick  came  into  the  office 
and  asked  for  the  Judge.  He  was  out  of  town  for 
several  days.  "Well,"  said  the  farmer,  "perhaps 
you  could  answer  the  question  I  wanted  to  ask 
him."  "Very  likely,"  said  Bacon;  "what  is  it?" 
"Well."  said  the  farmer,  "I  made  a  contract  with 
a  miller  in  our  ncir^hborhood  to  sell  him  my  crop 
of  wheat  for  a  dollar  and  seventy-five  cents  a 
bushel  and  the  price  has  gone  up  to  a  dollar  and 

107 


eighty  cents  a  bushel  and  I  want  to  know  if  he 
can  make  me  stand  to  that  bargain." 

Bacon  asked  him  how  much  wheat  there  was 
and  was  told  sixty  bushels.  Was  any  writing 
signed?  No.  Any  part  of  the  price  paid?  No, 
Any  of  the  wheat  delivered?  Not  a  grain.  Then 
he  can't  hold  you  said  Bacon.  "Then  he  won't 
get  my  wheat  at  that  price,"  said  the  farmer  and 
with  a  very  cheerful  look  on  his  face  he  was 
leaving  the  office  when  Bacon  halted  him  with 
the  suggestion  that  he  had  better  pay  for  the  legal 
advice  he  had  had.  After  considerable  protest 
the  farmer  paid  the  five  dollars  that  Bacon  de- 
manded and  the  latter  remarked  as  he  folded  the 
bill  up  and  put  it  in  his  pocketbook :  "You  can't 
expect  anybody  to  do  your  dirty  work  for  noth- 
ing." That  farmer  went  home  "a.  sadder  and  a 
wiser  man." 

Another  incident  which  occurred  in  the  office 
at  about  that  time  will  bear  narrating.  Bacon 
was  in  the  back  office,  I  in  the  front  one.  It  was 
quite  early; — Judge  Gedney  not  down  yet.     In 

those  days  a  rough  looking  chap  named  S , 

was  in  the  habit  of  coming  to  the  office  to  inter- 
view the  Judge.  He  was  the  wit  and  banterer 
of  the  Monroe  Mountains  but  looked  like  any- 
thing but  a  quick-witted  man.  I  knew  by  experi- 
ence, something  of  the  keenness  and  roughness 
of  his  wit  so  when  he  began  a  conversation  with 
me  with  the  remark,  "You  look  as  natural  to  me 
as  a  natural  fool  but  I  can't  call  you  by  name," 
I  politely  said,  "My  name  is  Anthony."  Bacon 
had  heard  the  fillip  I  got  and  was  laughing 
boisterously  in  the  back  office.     "Who's  that  in 

there,"  said  S. .    "Suppose  you  look  in  and 

make  his  acquaintance,"  said  I.  He  proceeded 
to  interview  Bacon  and  asked  him  several  ques- 
tions,— to  which  he  received  very  brief  and  gruff 
answers.  Finally  he  began  asking  the  names  and 
residences  of  Bacon's  parents  and  the  latter 
suggested  that  S seemed  to  have  a  good 

108 


deal  of  curiosity  about  his  family.  "No  offence 
meant,  stranger,"  said  S.  "I  wanted  to  know 
about  them  because  I  realy  think  they  must  be 
mighty  nice  people."  Bacon  was  placated  and 
innocently  asked,  "Why?"  "Well,"  said  S.,  "if  I 
had  been  half  as  cross  and  ugly  as  you  be  my 
parents  would  have  knocked  me  in  the  head 
before  I  was  six  weeks  old."  The  laugh  that 
followed  sweetened  the  day's  work  for  Bacon  and 

me  and  although   S didn't  even  smile,   I 

have  no  doubt  he  got  a  lot  of  satisfaction  out  of  it. 
Mr.  Bacon's  career  after  he  was  once  fairly 
started  in  his  professional  work  was  one  of  con- 
tinuous and  marked  success.  His  good,  sound 
judgment,  retentive  memory,  great  diligence, 
clear  "legal  instinct,"  and  extreme  thoroughness 
in  everything  he  did  and  in  every  detail  of  his 
work  made  him  in  a  few  years  one  the  leaders  of 
the  bar  of  this  county  and  of  several  of  the 
counties  adjoining  this.  His  success  was  chiefly 
due  to  the  thoroughness  with  which  he  prepared 
his  cases.  His  purpose  was  to  know  all  the  facts 
— and  all  the  law — bearing  upon  the  case  he  was 
about  to  try.  His  knowledge  of  the  basic 
principles  of  jurisprudence  and  of  the  leading 
cases  was  extensive  and  accurate  and  it  was 
therefore  comparatively  easy  for  him  to  prepare 
for  the  trial  of  his  cases  as  they  arose.  In  pre- 
senting a  case  to  the  jury  he  was  not  particularly 
happy.  He  talked  easily  and  to  the  point  and 
was  listened  to  with  attention.  His  arguments 
always  deserved  and  received  a  respectful  hear- 
ing. But  he  was  entirely  destitute  of  that 
mysterious  quality  called  "magnetism"  which 
enables  some  speakers  to  be  in  close  touch  with 
their  audiences  even  when  they  have  less  to  say 
than  Mr.  Bacon  usually  had  and  say  it  less 
smoothly  than  he.  Nevertheless  he  became  the 
most  prominent  trial  lawyer  in  the  county.  For 
many  years  he  was  the  trial  counsel  for  the  Erie 
Railway  Company  in  this  county  and,  in  Rock- 

100 


land  and  Sullivan  Counties  and  did  a  large  amount 
of  work  for  that  company  in  this  section  of  the 
State. 

His  independence  and  self-reliance  were  always 
conspicuous  features  of  his  character.  He  at- 
tached no  importance  to  differences  of  social 
standing  or  wealth.  The  only  standards  he 
recognized  were  mental  ability  and  moral  worth 
— and  on  this  basis  he  treated  everybody  as  he 
thought  they  deserved. 

In  1886  and  again  in  1888,  Mr.  Bacon  was 
elected  on  the  Democratic  ticket,  the  Representa- 
tive in  Congress  from  this  district.  He  had 
however  little  taste  for  public  office  and  not  much 
aptitude  for  political  finesse.  He  obtained  an 
excellent  standing  in  Congress  and  was  recogniz- 
ed as  a  man  of  ability.  He  never  held  any  other 
public  office  so  far  as  I  know. 

While  at  Washington  he  and  his  family  became 
intimately  acquainted  with  Samuel  J.  Randall 
and  with  his  family.  Randall  was  then  the 
Speaker  of  the  House.  A  few  years  later,  the 
first  Mrs.  Bacon  having  died,  meantime,  Mr. 
Bacon  married  Susan,  a  daughter  of  Mr.  Randall. 
She  survived  him — as  did  also  a  daughter  (by  the 
first  wife)  who  is  now  the  wife  of  Doctor  Brand- 
reth  Symonds. 

One  incident  of  Mr.  Bacon's  stay  in  Washing- 
ton may  be  worth  narrating  here. 

At  that  time  J.  C.  Bancroft  Davis  was  the 
reporter  of  the  decisions  of  the  United  States 
Supreme  Court.  Having  a  fairly  intimate  ac- 
quaintance with  Mr.  Davis  I  wrote  to  him 
suggesting  that  I  would  appreciate  any  courtesies 
he  might  extend  to  Mr.  Bacon.  This  resulted  in 
a  dinner  at  Mr.  Davis'  at  which  Mr.  Bacon  was 
one  of  the  guests  and  Hon.  L.  Q.  C.  Lamar — then 
a  Justice  of  the  Supreme  Court — was  another. 
After  dinner  Lamar  and  Davis  talked  over  the 
efforts  made  to  bring  about  the  recognition  of  the 
Confederacy  by  England.    Lamar  had  been  sent 

110 


to  Russia  in  behalf  of  the  Confederate  States  but 
had  stopped  at  London  and  was  doing  his  utmost 
to  procure  recognition  for  his  government.  Davis 
was  then  Secretary  of  the  American  Legation  at 
London.  The  plots  and  counter-plots  of  that 
momentous  contest  were  discussed  fully  and  very 
freely  by  these  two  men  in  their  after-dinner 
conversation  and  Mr.  Bacon  declared  that  he 
had  never  heard  such  interesting  talk. 


WILLIAM  VANAMEE 

was  born  at  Albany,  N.  Y.,  on  January  g,  1847. 
He  was  the  son  of  Doctor  Simon  A.  and  Anna 
Graham  Vanamee.  His  parents  removed  to 
Kingston,  N.  Y.,  while  he  was  a  child, — that 
being  the  home  of  the  original  Vanamee — (or 
van  Naame)  ancestor,  who  settled  there  in  1687. 

The  subject  of  this  sketch  received  his 
preparatory  education  at  the  Kingston  Academy 
and  at  the  hands  of  a  private  tutor. 

His  legal  study  was  conducted  in  the  office  of 
Judge  Groo  at  Middletown,  beginning  in  1866 
and  in  May,  1868,  he  was  examined  at  the  General 
Term  held  at  Poughkeepsie  and  was  duly  ad- 
mitted. Thenceforth  for  many  years  his  home 
and  his  office  were  in  Middletown  and  there  he 
built  up  a  large  and  lucrative  business.  Later, 
seeking  a  wider  field  of  practice,  he  removed  to 
Newburgh  and  for  a  short  time  had  a  business 
connection  in  Brooklyn.  N.  Y.,  but  continued  to 
have  his  domicile  in  Newburgh.  and  there  he 
died  on  May  7th,  1914.  In  1886  he  received  the 
degree  of  M.  A.  from  Hamilton  College. 

Although  Mr.  Vanamee  and  I  practiced  law 
side  by  side  during  the  last  fifteen  or  twenty 
years  of  his  life  and  were  on  terms  of  intimate 
and    friendly   acquaintance    I    never    felt   that    I 

III 


really  understood  him.  There  was  a  sort  of 
indefiriable  aloofness  about  him  which  seemed  to 
me  to  keep  even  his  intimate  friends  at  a  dis- 
tance; and  yet  he  was  friendly  in  his  manner, 
warm  in  his  greetings  *  id  seemingly  sincere  in 
his  friends/lips.  That  he  was  a  man  of  superior 
abii.lv  and  of  unusual  culture  was  evident  to 
everybody  who  sav/  anything  of  his  work.  He 
was  unquestionably  the  best  nisi  prius  lawyer 
resident  in  Middletov/n  in  his  day.  He  tried  a 
case  well  and  summfo  it  -ip  with  force  and  elo- 
quence. Juries  '  'ler.rd  him  with  pleasure  and 
v/henever  he  spoke  before  a  miscellaneous  audi- 
ence his  remarks  were  listened  to  with  close 
attention  and  spoken  of  afterwards  in  terms  of 
admiration.  It  is  not  intended  as  any  criticism 
of  either  his  manner  of  speaking  or  of  the  sub- 
stance of  his  addresses  when  I  state  that  there 
did  not  seem  to  be  the  same  spontaneity  about 
his  oratorical  work  that  there  was  about  that  of 
most  of  the  other  prominent  advocates  at  our 
bar.  Gedney  and  Fullerton  and  Carr  never 
made  any  preparation  for  their  jury  speeches. 
If  Winfield  prepared  he  concealed  the  fact  very 
successfully.  Mr.  Vanamee  gave  the  impression 
of  having  made  careful  preparation.  His  public 
utterances  "smelled  of  the  lamp."  If  reading 
maketh  a  full  man,  conversation  a  ready  man  and 
v/riting  an  exact  man  as  Lord  Bacon  said  was 
the  case,  Mr.  Vanamee  would  give  his  hearers 
the  impression  of  being  a  reading  man, — as  indeed 
he  was;  for  if  any  man  in  the  profession  since 
Judge  Gedney's  time  has  been  as  much  of  a  lover 
of  good  literature  as  Mr.  Vanamee  was  the  fact 
has  escaped  my  attention.  He  read  very  widely 
and  with  keen  discrimination.  His  addresses 
were  illuminated  with  apt  quotations  and  telling 
illustrations  but  I  cannot  sav  of  them  as  Judge 
Brown  does  of  Judge  McKissock  elsewhere  in 
this  book  that  they  "came  spontaneously  and 
unbidden  from  his  well-stored  memory  and  glow- 

112 


WIU^IAM    \A\A.\IKK 


ing  imagination,  as  the  lightning  breaks  upon  the 
distant  horizon  in  the  twilight  of  a  summer 
evening."  Rather  they  reminded  one  of  Long- 
fellow's lines: 

"Thus  at  the  flaming  forge  of  Life 
Our  fortunes  must  be  wrought, 
Thus  on  its  sounding  anvil  shaped 
Each  burning  deed  and  thought." 

Nevertheless  Mr.  Vanamee  was  a  strong  and 
successful  advocate  and  I  am  not  prepared  to  say 
that  he  did  not  win  as  large  a  percentage  of  his 
cases  as  any  of  .ho^je  lav/yers  did  whose  names  I 
have  mentioned  and  whose  u.ethods  I  bnve 
compared  with  his. 

His  literary  style  can  be  seen  to  advantage  in 
the  article  entitled,  "The  Bench  a.'d  Bar"  in 
Keadley's  "History  of  Orange  Coi  ■  y"  and  I 
risk  no  contradictions  when  I  say  that  he  has 
presented  a  very  dry  and  unpromising  subject  in 
a  graceful  and  captivating  way.  We  may  be 
inclined  to  criticise  it  as  too  eulogistic  of  his 
fellow-lawyers — of  few  more  so  than  of  the 
writer  of  this  sketch — but  as  to  the  charm  with 
which  it  is  put  there  can  hardly  be  two  opinions. 
That  the  various  lawyers  mentioned  are  extreme- 
ly well  spoken  of  is  an  indication  of  the  feeling 
Mr.  Vanamee  really  entertained  concerning  them. 
Those  who  knew  him  best  assure  me  that  he 
never  uttered  an  unpleasant  word  about  any 
fellow-lawyer  but  was  actually  filled  with  friend- 
ly regard  and  the  kindest  feelings  towards  them 
all.  They  speak  too  of  his  kindness  of  heart  and 
sympathy  for  the  unfortunate — a  tribute  of  more 
worth  than  all  the  commendation  that  could  be 
paid  to  him  as  an  advocate. 

Mr.  Vanamee  died  at  a  comparatively  early 
age.  His  health  failed  gradually — his  physical 
not  his  mental  strength — and  his  condition  was 
such  that  for  three  or  four  years  before  he  died 
he  could  do  no  professional  work  except  at  the 


risk  of  his  life.  Had  it  not  been  for  this,  his 
reputation  and  standing  as  an  attorney  might 
have  been  even  higher  than  they  are. 

He  was  twice  married.  His  first  wife  was 
Miss  Ostroni  of  Goshen.  Of  thiu  marriage  three 
children  were  born — two  sons  and  a  daughter, — 
the  latter  being  now  the  wife  of  Percy  V.  D.  Gott 
of  Goshen.  The  sons,  (named  Talcott  and 
Parker  respectively)  are  living, —  one  a  physician 
and  the  other  a  clergyman.  Mr,  Vanamee's 
second  wife  v/as  Miss  Davis — before  her  marri- 
age. Of  this  marriage  there  were  no  children. 
She  is  still  living. 


LEWIS  E.  CARR. 

*Mr.  Carr  was  born  at  Salisbury,  Herkimer 
County,  N.  Y.,  on  March  loth,  1842.  He  was 
educated  in  the  public  schools  and  at  the  Fair- 
field Seminary.  After  leaving  that  institution  he 
studied  law  at  the  Albany  Law  School  and  in 
1864  was  admitted  to  the  Bar  at  Albany.  Soon 
after  that  he  settled  at  Port  Jervis  and  began  the 
practice  of  his  profession. 

In  that  vocation  his  rise  to  eminence  was  rapid. 
In  187 1  he  was  elected  District  Attorney  of  the 
county;  this  office  he  held  for  one  term.  Mean- 
time he  had  been  appointed  local  counsel  for  the 
Erie  Railway  Company  and  he  retained  that 
position  until  he  removed  to  Albany  in  1893. 
There  he  became  Resident  Counsel  for  the  Dela- 
ware &  Hudson  R.  R.  Company  and  that  position 
he  still  holds  and  fills. 

The  amount  of  work  done  by  Mr.  Carr  while 
he  resided  in  this  county  would  have  killed  most 


•  N.  B. — No  extended  sketch  of  Mr.  Carr  Is  intended 
to  be  made  here  for  reasons  stated  in  the  "Preamble" 
to   this   book. 

114 


HI99M9I 

LKVVIS    K.    CAUK 


men  and  it  is  reported  that  he  k  still  working  as 
h^.ird  as  ever;  and  yet,  at  the  age  of  sev?  ity-tivs 
years  his  mind  seems  as  vigorous  and  -cti'. -.  as 
it  was  in  his  pri  ne  and  there  i-  scarcely  ;i  gray 
hair  in  his  head. 

Mr.  C'cirr  has  impressed  me  as  one  of  irs  ablest 
r.ien  of  .ny  geneiation  practicing  at  our  bar  id 
the  T-'St  fluent  speaker  among  them.  H-.  is 
moreover  a  truly  eloquent  man — for  there  is  a 
wide  difference  bft -veen  fluency  and  eloquence. 
Mr.  Carr's  idea  •,  thoughts,  illustrations  and  argu- 
ments keep  p?  e  with  his  smooth  and  rapid  flow 
of  words  so  tj  at  what  he  says  is  not  only  well 
said  but  conveys  a  substantial  chain  of  thoughts 
in  an  interesting  and  impressive  way. 

May  it  be  a  long  time  before  anvone  is  called 
upon  to  write  a  sketch  of  him  which  treats  him 
as  a  man  of  the  past. 


iiii 


A  List  of  the  County  Judges,   Surrogates 

and  District  Attorneys  of  the  County 

Since  the  Year  1800 


COUNTY  JUDGES. 


Nathan  H.  White 
Samuel  S.  Seward 
Gilbert  O.  Fowler 
Horace  W.  Elliott 
Goldsmith  Denniston 
Allen  M.  Sherman 
David  W.  Bate 
John  G.  Wilkin 

-  A.  H. 


Benjamin  F.  Duryea 
John  J.  Monell 
David  F,  Gedney 
Thomas  George 
Stephen  W.  Fullerton 

—  Charles  F.  Brown 
John  G.  Wilkin 
John  J.  Beattie 

F.  Seeger 


SPECIAL  COUNTY  JUDGES. 


John  G.  Wilkin 
Robert  Proudfit,  Jr. 
Charles  Borland 
James  W.   Taylor 
E.  Gedney  Van  Duzer 
James  W.  Taylor 
George  W.  Green 
J.  Hallock  Drake 
James  W.  Taylor 


William  J.  Groo 
Theron  N.  Little 
Michael  H.  Hirschberg 
Obadiah  P.  Howell 
Amos  Van  Etten 
Ferdinand  V.  Sanford 
Henry  B.  Fullerton 
Frank  Lybolt 
Herbert  B.  Royce 


us 


SURROGATES. 


Edward  Ely 
Job  Noble 
Edward  Ely 
Wheeler  Case 
David  H.  Tuthill 
John  B.  Booth 
Geors^e  M.  Grier 
Charles  Borland 


Benjamin  F.  Duryea 
James  W.  Fowler 
John  J.  McConnell 
David  A.  Scott 
Gilbert  O.  Hulse 
Henry  A.  V/adsworth 
Roswell  C.  Coleman 
O.  P.  Howell 


John  B.  Swezey 


SPECIAL  SURROGATES. 


Charles  Borland 
Frederick  A.  Hoyt 
John  V.  D.  Benedict 
Henry  C.  Duryea 
Bush 


Daniel  E.  Pope 
John  P.  Sears 
George  W.  McElroy 
John  B.  Swezey 
Joseph  M.  Wilkin 


Elwood  C.  Smith 


DISTRICT  ATTORNEYS. 
(Were  not  county  officials  until   1818). 


Samuel  R.  Betts 
Henry  G.  Wisner 
Ogdcn  Hoffman 
Charles  Borland 
Isaac  R,  Van  Duzcr 
Samuel  J.  Wilkin 
Charles  Borland,  Jr. 
Nathan  Wcscott 
Hugh  B.  Bull 
Charles  H.  Winfield 
David  F.  Gedncy 
Charles  C.  MrOuoid 

''Henry  M. 


C 


Abram  S.  Casscdy 

--•John  H.  Drake 

■^  Stephen  W.  Fullerton 
Lewis  E.  Carr 
Charles  F.  Brown 
Walter  C.  Anthony 
Russell  T.  Headlcy 
Michael  H.  Hirschbcrg 
Abram  V.  N.  Powelson 
A.  H.  F.  Seeger 
Thomas  C.  Rogers 
J.  D.  Wilson,  Jr. 

HirschbergJ, 


OLD  DAYS  AND  OLD  WAYS 


As  a  sort  of  summing  up  of  what  has  gone 
before  I  give  here  Mr.  Graham's  opinion  regard- 
ing some  of  the  lawyers  mentioned  in  the  earher 
portion  of  this  book.     He  writes: 

"In  your  last  letter  you  intimate  that  you 
would  like  to  know  my  opinion  as  to  the 
comparative  merits  of  several  of  the  members 
of  the  bar  of  Orange  County.  My  estimate 
may  be  very  far  wrong,  but  I  will  give  it  never- 
theless. In  my  judgment,  the  greatest  lawyer 
who  ever  lived  in  Orange  County  was  John  Duer. 
I  do  not  know  whether  he  was  born  in  Orange 
County,  or  not,  but  he  practiced  at  Goshen  for 
a  good  many  years  before  going  to  New  York 
City.  He  was  associated  with  Benjamin  F. 
Butler,  afterward  Attorney  General  and  Secre- 
tary of  War  of  the  United  States,  and  John  C. 
Spencer,  who  afterward  was  Secretary  of  State 
of  New  York,  and  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  of 
the  United  States,  in  the  Revision  of  1830  and 
for  no  small  share  of  that  work  he  was  responsi- 
ble. Subsequently  he  was  Judge  and  Chief 
Justice  of  the  Superior  Court  of  New  York  City, 
and  at  that  time  the  Bench  of  that  Court  had  no 
superior  on  this  side  of  the  Atlantic,  and  his 
judgments  stood  the  test  of  time  and  critical 
examination. 

"Next  to  him  I  would  place  John  W.  Brown 
(though  born  in  Scotland)  for  breadth  of  learning 
and  power  of  elucidating  abstract  principles. 
Next  to  him  I  think  stood  William  Fullerton  for 
power  of  intellect,  entire  self-control  and  incis- 
iveness  in  examination  of  witnesses,  and  in 
presenting  his  case  to  the  jury  or  the   Court. 

118 


Yet  I  am  told  that  for  breadth  of  intellect  and 
legal  knowledge,  and  clearness  of  reasoning  he 
was  surpassed  by  his  brother,  Stephen  W. 
Fullerton;  but  'Whit'  (as  he  was  called  in  my 
time)  had  not  won  his  spurs  when  I  came  out 
West. 

"In  reputation  for  brilliancy  of  argument,  for 
eloquence  of  speech  and  flood  of  illustration, 
according  to  their  reputation  as  it  reached  my 
ears,  Ogden  Hoffman,  Isaac  R.  Van  Duzer  and 
Samuel  J.  Wilkin  surpassed  all  others.  For 
ingenuity  in  marshaling  the  facts,  for  vigor  of 
expression  and  versatility  in  the  management  of 
a  case.  Judge  McKissock.  For  polish  of  manner 
and  speech  and  careful  preservation  of  the  rights 
of  his  client.  Judge  Monell.  I  frequently  heard 
Winfield,  but  never  heard  Gedney  make  an  ad- 
dress of  any  kind,  but  speaking  from  knowledge 
of  one,  and  the  reputation  of  the  other,  I  would 
say  that  as  all  around  lawyers  and  advocates 
they  had  few  superiors.  I  should  say  that  in 
power  of  reasoning  and  force  of  logic  they  were 
inferior  to  either  of  the  Fullertons,  but  of  a  more 
captivating  manner  in  presenting  their  cases  to 
a  jury  or  miscellaneous  audience,  over  whom 
their  influence  was  deservedly  great. 

"My  estimate  may  be  largely  erroneous  but 
such  as  it  is  you  have  it. 

"I  often  heard  Judge  Booth  speak  of  Henry  G. 
Wisner,  but  I  can  not  give  you  anything  that 
would  be  of  any  assistance  to  you." 

In  my  judgment  Mr.  Graham  is  about  right. 


Judge  Barnard  was  once  questioned  as  to  the 
comparative  standing  of  the  lawvers  of  Dutchess 
County  and  Orange,  and  he  replied: 

"We  have  no  man  in  Dntrhcss  Covmty  who 
can  try  a  case  as  'Whit'  I-'ullcrton  can.  There 
is  no  man  in  Orange  County  who  can  sum  up  a 

119 


case  as  Allard  Anthony  can.  But  Judge  Gedney 
and  Mr.  Gott  make  a  team  that  cannot  be  equal- 
ed in  Dutchess  or  anywhere  in  this  judicial 
district  in  my  opinion,"  (N,  B. — The  district 
then  included  all  of  Long  Island), 

Judge  Barnard  had  a  very  high  opinion  of 
Fullerton's  ability  as  a  trial  lawyer.  He  said 
several  times  that  "Whit"  Fullerton  and  "Matt" 
Carpenter — (later  a  United  States  Senator  from 
Wisconsin) — were  the  best  cross-examiners  he 
had  ever  seen.  Carpenter  was  counsel  in  a  very 
important  murder  case  which  was  tried  in 
Dutchess  County  in  or  about  the  year  1865  and 
he  made  a  very  favorable  impression  upon  the 
entire  Bar  of  that  county. 

The  Fullertons — William  and  "Whit" — were 
probably  the  most  skillful  trial  lawyers  and 
certainly  the  best  cross-examiners  we  have  ever 
had  in  this  county.  Their  methods  were  very 
different  but  equally  effective.  William  was 
keen,  quick  and  somewhat  aggressive  and  woe 
betide  the  witness  who  began  a  game  of  repartee 
with  him.  Whittaker  was  more  deliberate,  more 
cautious  and  more  considerate  of  the  witness. 
He  often  said  that  unless  the  lawyer  feels  abso- 
lutely sure  that  he  can  break  a  witness  complete- 
ly, he  must  never  seem  to  be  harsh  with  him, 
for  the  sympathy  of  the  jury  is  against  the 
lawyer  and  with  the  witness  all  the  time  until 
the  latter  is  clearly  shown  to  be  lying.  Another 
of  his  rules  was  not  to  cross-examine  a  witness 
at  all  unless  you  had  a  distinct  purpose  in  view 
and  a  definite  plan  for  accomplishing  it.  William 
Fullerton  used  to  say  that  he  thought  he  could 
catch  any  witness  who  was  falsifying,  provided 
he  could  examine  him  long  enough.  In  this 
connection  he  said  that  he  cross-examined  the 
leading  witness  in  a  very  important  will  case — 
involving  half  a  million  dollars — for  two  whole 
days  without  tripping  her  un ;  but  he  added :  "I 
got  her  the  third  day;  caught  her  on  arithmetic. 

130 


She  had  sworn  to  her  age  early  in  her  cross- 
examination.  On  the  third  day  I  asked  her  what 
her  employment  was  at  that  time  and  when  she 
went  to  work  in  that  position;  then  I  asked  her 
about  outside  matters  for  a  while  so  that  she 
would  not  become  suspicious;  then  I  questioned 
her  about  what  she  was  doing  previous  to  the 
latest  employment  and  how  long  she  was  in  that 
place  and  then  we  talked  about  other  matters 
again;  and  so  I  led  her  backward  step  by  step 
until  I  could  call  her  attention  to  the  fact  that 
she  must  have  been  only  four  years  old  when  she 
was  present  at  the  execution  of  the  will  in  ques- 
tion about  which  she  had  testified  very  fully  and 
minutely.  Then  she  went  all  to  pieces.  She 
had  lied  about  her  age  and  also  about  the 
execution  of  the  will." 


One  of  the  questions  about  the  lawyer  of 
former  days  which  will  naturally  occur  to  a 
lawyer  of  this  present  time  is  "what  income  did 
his  business  yield?" 

I  have  excellent  reasons  for  thinking  that  no 
lawyer  in  the  county  made  five  thousand  dollars 
per  year,  prior  to  the  Civil  War.  During  that 
war  some  of  them  perhaps  avera,2;ed  that  amount 
— but  they  were  few  and  far  between.  There 
was  an  income  tax  during  the  later  years  of  that 
war,  and  the  incomes  reported  throughout  the 
county  were  published  in  some  of  our  news- 
papers. They  make  what  Horace  Grccly  used 
to  call   "mighty  interesting  reading"  now. 

Making  all  due  allowances  for  exemptions  it 
would  seem  that  there  was  but  one  practicing 
lawyer  in  Ncwburgh,  and  not  one  elsewhere  in 
the  county,  who  reported  an  income  of  five 
thousand  dollars  by  the  report  made  in  August, 
1865,  and  the  one  v/hose  income  exceeded  that 

m 


figure  doubtless  derived  a  considerable  part  of 
it  as  interest  on  his  investments. 

It  must  be  remembered  that  business  expenses 
were  very  trifling  then.  Office  rent,  stenogra- 
phers, telephones,  books  and  various  incidentals 
were  then  either  very  small  or  actually  non- 
existent. I  doubt  if  there  were  half  a  dozen 
lawyers  in  the  county  who  employed  any  paid 
clerical  help  about  their  offices,  fifty  years  ago. 
Living  expenses  also  were  very  much  less  then 
than  they  are  now.  It  is  probably  a  fair 
proposition  to  say  that  any  given  income  then 
was  worth  fully  as  much  as  one  twice  as  large 
is  today. 

The  charges  for  legal  services  increased 
somewhat  during  the  Civil  War, — but  not  much; 
and  the  "taxable  costs"  in  litigated  cases  have 
not  been  increased  since  1848  to  any  appreciable 
extent.  The  charges  which  lawyers  make  against 
their  clients  in  these  days  are  doubtless  decidedly 
larger  than  they  were  formerly — but  it  is  much 
more  satisfactory  to  "live  off  of  the  enemy's 
country"  as  far  as  possible.  The  lawyers  as  a  rule 
attached  less  importance  to  the  pecuniary  end 
of  their  business  forty  or  fifty  years  ago  than 
thev  do  now.  Gedney  had  no  account  books; 
Fullerton  kept  no  complete  accounts. 


In  the  old  days  there  was  far  more  practical 
joking  among  the  lawyers  than  there  has  been 
of  late  years.  They  seemed  to  have  more  time 
for  it  then  than  they  have  now.  Much  of  it 
centered  about  "Whit"  Fullerton.  He  and  all 
his  brothers  were  full  of  a  spirit  of  mischief. 
One  incident  "Whit"  used  to  relate  with  great 
glee.  One  day  his  father  said  to  William,  "Go 
over  to  neighbor  Smith's  and  ask  him  if  he  will 
lend  me  his  wheelbarrow." 

After   an   hour   or   so   William   returned   and 

122 


reported  to  his  father:  "Yes,  sir!     He  says  he'll 
lend  it  to  you." 

On  another  occasion  Mr.  Fullerton,  the  father, 
was  mending  a  dam  on  his  farm.  The  material 
needed  was  dug  out  of  a  bank  on  one  side  of  the 
stream  and  loaded  in  a  cart  and  then  hauled 
across  the  half  empty  mill  pond  and  used  at  the 
farther  end  of  the  dam  and  race.  William  was 
driving  the  oxen  and  the  "old  gentleman"  and 
"Whit"  were  helping.  They  walked  behind  the 
cart  until  they  came  to  the  edge  of  the  pond. 
Then  they  would  step  up  on  the  hind  end  of  the 
cart  and  ride  across  dry  shod.  Finally  on  one 
of  the  return  trips  William  could  not  resist  the 
temptation  any  longer.  He  stooped  down  and 
unloosed  the  pin, — the  cart  tipped  up, — and  the 
two  passengers  at  its  rear  were  spilled  off  into 
a  puddle  of  very  muddy  water  a  couple  of  feet 
deep.  Of  course  William  got  a  thrashing  but 
that  he  expected.     The  fun  fully  repaid  him. 

I  saw  more  of  this  spirit  of  practical  fun  in 
"Whit"  than  I  did  in  his  brothers.  One  instance 
recurs  to  my  memory. 

"Whit"  and  Judge  Monell  were  in  the  latter's 
private  office  adjusting  some  business  matters 
of  importance  when  a  pompous  individual  enter- 
ed whose  white  cravat  indicated  his  claim  to 
clerical  standing.  Monell  had  seen  him  or  heard 
of  him  before  and  at  once  recognized  him  as  a 
solicitor  of  contributions  for  some  charity  or 
other.  The  caller  asked  whether  Judge  Monell 
was  in.  The  Judge,  thinking  it  a  good  chance 
to  put  a  joke  over  on  Fullerton,  waved  his  hand 
towards  the  latter  and  said :  "That  is  Judge 
Monell."  No  slightest  change  of  expression 
passed  over  Fullerton's  face.  He  listened 
patiently  to  the  caller's  story  while  Monell  sat 
by  enjoying  the  situation.  But  a  change  "came 
o'er  the  spirit  of  his  dreams"  when  Fullerton 
asked  to  sec  the  caller's  subscription  book  and 
with   great   deliberation  wrote   in   it :     "John  J. 

12» 


Monell,  $10 ;"  quietly  remarking,  "I  shall  have  to 
ask  you  to  call  a  little  later  for  the  money — I 
haven't  the  precise  amount  by  me  at  present." 
Needless  to  say  that  little  joke  cost  Monell  ten 
dollars. 

It  was  very  difficult  to  corner  Fullerton  or  to 
get  the  better  of  him  in  an  encounter  of  wits. 
In  an  action  which  was  on  trial  before  Carr  as 
referee  I  was  a  party ;  Fullerton  was  my  attorney ; 
Brewster — (E.  A.) — and  Brown — (Charles  F., 
afterwards  'J^^g^  Brown') — were  opposed.  I 
had  invested  some  money  in  a  v/oolen  mill  and 
was  likely  to  lose  some  of  it.  Fullerton  had  lost 
heavily  not  very  long  before  in  a  patent  hay 
press — (He  al'ways  lost  when  he  speculated 
and  usually  when  he  invested).  Brev/ster  had  a 
lot  of  money  tied  up  in  cemetery  stock  which 
paid  no  dividend  and  Brown  was  largely  inter- 
ested in  a  plaster  mill  which  just  then  was  giving 
him  considerable  trouble  and  no  profits.  Brown 
started  the  skirmish  by  saying  of  my  investment 
that  he  supposed  it  was  all  right  but  it  seemed 
to  him  a  blamed  queer  thing  for  a  lawyer  to 
invest  his  money  in  a  woolen  mill. 

Fullerton's  retort  came  like  a  flash,  "No 
queerer  and  no  more  risky  than  a  plaster  mill." 
Then  Brewster  took  a  shot  at  Fullerton,  remark- 
ing, "Either  of  them  is  as  safe  as  a  hay  press." 
Again  the  retort  came  instantly,  "Any  of  the 
three  is  better  than  a  bone  yard." 

John  Kerr  who  was  attorney  for  some  of  the 
parties  said:  "I  think  I  have  no  remarks  to 
make."  It  was  a  particularly  neat  specimen  of 
repartee — and  Fullerton  was  full  of  that  sort  of 
thing. 

His  neatest  and  most  famous  practical  joke 
resulted  in  a  Newburgh  Lothario  making  a 
"date"  with  his  own  wife  under  the  impression 
that  it  was  with  another  woman.  A  very  worthy 
woman  came  to  Fullerton's  office  and  showed 
him  a  particularly  ardent  letter  which  she  had 

124 


received  from  a  married  man.  She  was  furious 
and  wanted  the  writer  of  the  letter  sued  at  once. 
Fullerton  dissuaded  her  but  said  that  if  she 
would  follow  his  instructions  implicitly  she 
should  have  complete  revenge.  At  his  dictation 
she  wrote  a  letter  and  mailed  it  to  the  Lothario 
saying  among  many  other  things  that  she  was 
planning  to  go  to  the  city  on  the  barge  *  *  * 
on  such  a  night  and  would  try  to  secure  state- 
room Number  4,  and  if  there  was  a  gentle  tap  at 
the  door  of  that  stateroom  at  precisely  11  o'clock 
p.  m.,  the  door  would  be  opened, — though  the 
room  might  be  in  darkness — and  no  violent 
effort  would  be  made  to  keep  him  out.  Mean- 
time Fullerton  sent  for  the  Lothario's  wife,  who 
had  consulted  him  several  times  about  securing 
a  divorce  from  her  husband. 

The  situation  was  explained  to  her — the  name 
of  the  lady  not  being  mentioned — and  she  cheer- 
fully consented  to  take  the  trip  to  New  York  on 
the  appointed  night  and  carry  out  her  part  of 
the  play.  At  that  time  the  barge  in  question  was 
commanded  by  a  near-relative  of  Fullerton's  and 
he  had  no  difficulty  in  securing  stateroom  No.  4 
for  the  night  he  wished. 

The  rest  of  the  story  will  readily  suggest  itself 
to  anybody  who  has  read  thus  far.  The  plan 
worked  out  precisely  as  Fullerton  had  designed. 
It  will  be  "relevant"  for  me  to  add  that  Mrs. 
Lothario  never  had  occasion  afterwards  to  con- 
sult Fullerton,  or  anybody  else,  about  procuring 
a  divorce  from  her  husband. 

One  case  which  came  to  the  office  soon  after 
I  entered  it  as  a  student  has  always  been 
prominent  in  my  memory.  One  day  I  saw  a 
young  man — perhaps  between  twenty-five  and 
thirty  years  old — come  into  the  outer  office.  He 
was  the  incarnation  of  self-satisfaction; — as 
"cockey"  as  a  drum  major.  In  that  mood  he 
passed  through  the  outer  office,  entered  Fuller- 
ton's   private    room,    and    the    door   was    closed. 

125 


Half  an  hour  or  so  later  he  came  out  and  I  have 
never  seen,  in  all  my  life,  so  great  a  change 
wrought  in  any  other  person  in  so  short  a  time. 
He  was  in  a  state  bordering  on  collapse.  It  was 
a  good  while  after  that  before  Fullerton  told  me 
what  had  caused  the  change.  It  seems  that  a 
few  months  before  this  interview  a  young  man 
residing  not  far  from  Newburgh  had  gone  out 
alone  gunning.  A  few  hours  later  his  dead  body 
was  found  lying  in  a  roadway  in  the  woods  and 
near  him  was  his  gun,  one  barrel  of  which  had 
been  discharged  and  the  load  had  entered  the 
hunter's  head  from  behind  causing  instant  death. 
Shortly  after  his  burial  his  wife's  brother  began 
to  talk  to  his  sister,  (the  widow),  about  the 
money  due  to  him  from  her  husband,  for  which 
he  claimed  that  he  held  promissory  notes  made 
by  the  husband.  She  felt  sure  something  was 
wrong  and  came  to  Fullerton  for  counsel.  He 
wrote  to  the  claimant  asking  him  to  call  at  the 
office  and  see  what  arrangement,  if  any,  could 
be  made  in  regard  to  his  claims  against  his 
brother-in-law's  estate  and  to  be  sure  to  bring 
with  him  all  notes  or  other  papers  in  support 
of  his  claim.  It  was  in  response  to  that  invita- 
tion that  he  entered  the  office  when  I  first  saw 
him. 

When  the  door  closed  behind  him  he  was 
given  a  seat  facing  the  window  which  was  back 
of  Mr.  Fullerton  and  the  latter  could  see  every 
movement  of  his  countenance.  The  notes — three 
in  number — were  produced.  They  aggregated 
several  hundred  dollars.  Fullerton  questioned 
the  claimant  about  his  business  transactions 
with  the  decedent  and  the  consideration  for  the 
notes  and  the  explanation  became  somewhat 
confused  and  indefinite.  Then  the  circumstances 
connected  with  the  death  of  the  deceased  were 
asked  about  and  the  tragedy  of  the  event  was 
shown  mercilessly  by  means  of  the  questions 
asked.     Finally  Fullerton  said,  "You  think  your 

126 


brother-in-law  was  carrying  his  gun  over  his 
shoulder  with  the  butt  end  behind;  that  it  slip- 
ped out  of  his  hand  and  when  it  struck  the 
ground  one  barrel  was  discharged  and  the  shot 
entering  the  head  of  decedent  caused  his  death 
instantly?"  This  theory  was  insisted  on  very 
positively  under  skillful  examination;  the  claim- 
ant stated  that  the  accident  could  not  be 
explained  on  any  other  theory.  Then  Fullerton 
asked  him  if  he  didn't  think  it  passing  strange 
that  the  charge  of  shot  had  passed  downward 
through  the  brain  and  not  upward.  This  fact 
was  shown  by  the  Coroner's  minutes  of  which 
Fullerton  had  a  copy. 

Fullerton  then  inquired  about  the  making  of 
the  notes  and  the  claimant  stated  that  he  him- 
self wrote  the  body  of  the  documents;  that  his 
brother-in-law  signed  them  and  immediately 
delivered  them  to  him  and  he  had  held  them 
ever  since.  He  further  said  that  his  brother-in- 
law  had  placed  the  revenue  stamps  on  the  notes ; 
that  he  did  it  with  his  own  hands  before  deliver- 
ing the  notes  to  claimant  and  cancelled  them  by 
writing  his  initials  on  them. 

"Precisely  as  they  are  now?"  "Yes."  "You 
are  absolutely  sure  of  this?"  "Yes."  By  this 
time  the  claimant  was  very  badly  demoralized — 
and  his  overthrow  was  completed  when  Fuller- 
ton  held  the  notes  up  in  front  of  him  and  said, 
"Don't  you  think  that  your  brother-in-law  was  a 
very  far-sighted  man  to  put  revenue  stamps  on 
these  notes  nearly  three  months  before  the  law 
required  notes  to  be  stamped?"  The  claimant 
went  all  to  pieces.  The  notes  were  marked 
"surrendered  and  cancelled"  and  he  managed  to 
sign  his  name  to  that  statement  and  then  he 
made  his  way  out  of  the  office  as  best  he  could. 
Fullerton  added  when  he  told  me  the  story,  "I 
believe  I  could  have  convicted  him  of  murder, 
but  his  sister  would   not   give  her  consent." 

Mr.  Fullerton's  office  table  was  always  covered 

127 


with  bundles  of  papers  and  dozens  of  letters  but 
he  disliked  to  have  them  touched  or  re-arranged. 
One  day  when  he  was  out  of  town  I  straightened 
out  the  litter  on  his  desk;  the  drawers  were 
empty  so  I  distributed  the  rubbish  among  them 
in  alphabetical  order.  When  he  returned  and 
saw  what  an  improvement  (?)  had  been  made 
there  was  not  the  slightest  change  in  his  ex- 
pression. A  little  later  he  called  me  and  asked 
"Where  are  the  papers  in against ?" 

I  showed  him  the  proper  drawer  and  explained 
that  the  arrangement  was  strictly  alphabetical, 
the  first  drawers  having  the  early  letters  of  the 
alphabet;  the  second  some  later  letters  and  so 
throughout. 

Presently  another  batch  of  papers  was  asked 
for.  I  produced  it  from  the  proper  drawer,  and 
it,— like  the  former  batch—  was  restored  to  its 
place  on  the  top  of  the  flat  desk — and  Fullerton, 
without  the  slightest  change  of  expression  on 
his  face,  remarked,  "No  doubt  your  intentions 
were  good,  Anthony;  the  trouble  is  you  had  too 
damned  many  of  them." 

Ever  since  that  day  I  always  have  tried  to 
avoid  "butting  in." 

One  of  the  famous  cases  of  forty  years  ago 
was  that  of  vs.  . 

The  action  was  based  on  four  promissory 
notes,  each  for  several  hundred  dollars.  The 
body  of  the  instruments  had  been  written  by  the 
plaintiff  who  claimed  that  the  signature  was  that 
of  the  defendant.  Fullerton  borrowed  the 
original  instruments  and  succeeded  in  having 
them  imitated  so  perfectly  in  every  particular 
that  we  could  only  tell  the  copies  from  the 
originals  by  means  of  a  minute  pin  hole  which 
we  made  in  each  of  the  genuine  notes.  The 
cashiers  of  our  several  city  banks  swore  unhesi- 
tatingly to  the  genuineness  of  the  signature  on 
the  copies.  Finally  the  plaintiff  himself  swore 
that  the  body  of  the  copies  was  written  by  him 

1S8 


and  that  the  documents  were  signed  by  the 
defendant  in  his  presence.  At  this  point  he 
became  a  little  suspicious  and  remarked,  "there 
has  been  a  lot  of  talk  about  forgery  in  this  case ; 
let  me  look  at  them  closer."  He  took  them  up 
close  to  the  window  and  examined  them  minutely 
and  then  said  again  that  he  himself  wrote  the 
body  of  each  note  and  the  defendant  signed  each 
one;  that  he  was  absolutely  positive  as  to  these 
facts.  Then  Fullerton  handed  out  the  genuine 
notes  and  quietly  asked,  "Well,  how  about 
these?"  The  plaintiff  was  completely  non- 
plussed. The  papers  became  mixed  in  his  hand 
and  he  could  not  tell  one  from  another.  Turn- 
ing to  Fullerton  he  exclaimed,  "What  kind  of  a 
damned  man  are  you,  anyhow?"  The  plaintiff 
succeeded  in  the  action  but  there  was  nobody 
in  our  local  banks  for  several  years  after  that 
who  could  qualify  as  an  expert  on  handwriting 
and  bear  a  cross-examination. 


Another  law  suit  which  made  an  intense  but 
transient  sensation  in  Newburgh  in  the  "old 
days"  was  spoken  of  as  the  "bouquet  case."  One 
Lee,  a  queer  chap,  was  deeply  interested  in  a 
young  lady  who  lived  on  Newburgh's  chief 
residential  street.  He  decided  to  serenade  her 
and  took  pains  to  let  her  know  of  his  purpose 
and  when  he  intended  to  carry  it  out.  He  also 
announced  his  intention  to  some  of  his  young 
men  friends.  This  information  came  to  the  cars 
of  A.,  who  was  an  inveterate  joker,  and  he,  on 
the  appointed  evening,  chartered  a  hand  organ 
grinder  and  piloted  him  to  the  young  lady's 
house.  Here  the  organ  was  played  vigorously 
and  A,  having  purposely  clothed  himself  to 
resemble  Lee  as  much  as  possible,  marched  up 
and  down  underneath  her  window.  Of  course 
the  young  woman  had  provided  herself  with  an 


elegant  bouquet  and  although  she  thought  a 
"serenade"  by  a  hand  organ  was  a  very  strange 
performance  still  as  nobody  ever  knew  what 
queer  thing  to  expect  from  Lee  she  threw  out 
the  bouquet, — which  A.  picked  up  and  with 
many  profound  bows  and  wafted  kisses  marched 
away,  accompanied  by  the  organ  grinder. 

Very  shortly  afterwards  Lee  appeared  on  the 
scene  with  three  or  four  musicians  and  the  real 
serenade  began.  But  the  young  lady  had  no 
more  bouquets  to  bestow  and  being  a  good  deal 
mystified  by  this  second  serenade  paid  no 
attention  to  it. 

A  few  days  later  Lee  learned  the  facts  of  the 
case  and  sued  A.  in  justice's  court  for  the  value 
of  the  bouquet.  The  crowd  attending  the  trial 
soon  outgrew  the  justice's  office  and  an  evening 
session  was  held  in  the  Court  House.  Here  the 
fun  grew  fast  and  furious.  Lee  was  in  dead 
earnest.  He  was  one  of  the  sort  who  can  never 
see  a  joke,  but  everybody  else  in  the  crowded 
room  was  convulsed  with  laughter.  Finally, 
after  a  solemn  argument  by  Lee,  who  by  the  bye 
was  a  law-student,  and  a  humorous  speech  by 
A's  attorney,  the  case  went  to  the  jury  who 
brought  in  this  verdict:  "We  find  no  cause  of 
action  and  we  recommend  the  plaintiff  to  the 
mercy  of  the  Court  and  community." 

Having  told  the  foregoing  story  somewhat  at 
Lee's  expense  it  is  no  more  than  fair  for  me  to 
show  another  side  of  his  nature.  He  wrote  and 
published  quite  a  bit  of  very  fair  prose  and  one 
little  poem  which  seems  to  me  so  good  that  I 
give  it  complete. 

His  father  was  a  clergyman  and  served  for  a 
number  of  years  as  pastor  of  a  church  at  Mont- 
gomery. Some  time  after  his  death  a  lady,  a 
member  of  his  congregation,  gave  the  church  a 
pulpit  Bible  in  memory  of  the  dead  pastor  and 
young  Lee,  the  law  student,  sent  her  the  follow- 
ing: 

lao 


LINES  TO  A  LADY 

On  the  presentation  of  a   Pulpit  Bible  to   the 

Reformed  Dutch  Church  of  Montgomery, 

September  30th,  1858. 

Honored  in  the  ancient  Temple  were  the  gifts 

of  Sheba's  queen; 
Grander  yet  the  Magi's  offerings  to  the  lowly 

Nazarene. 
Sheba's  crown  is  dust  and  ashes,  no  one  knows 

the  Magi's  grave; 
But  the  Lord  has  not  forgotten  who  they  were 

or  what  they  gave. 

Heaven's  altar  needs  no  incense,  and  the  finest 
gold  is  dim 

In  the  presence  of  the  glory  ever  overshadowing 
Him; 

But  the  record  has  been  written  that  their  mem- 
ory should  live. 

For  the  spirit  of  the  givers  consecrates  the 
things  they  give. 

In  the  grave  yard  sleeps  the  pastor  by  the  church 
he  loved  so  well, 

But  the  Word  of  God  abideth,  like  a  deathless 
Evangel, — 

And  that  Pulpit  Bible  preaches,  while  the  pas- 
tor's clearer  eyes 

See  its  mysteries  unfolded  in  the  light  of 
Paradise. 

JOHN  WILTSIE  LEE. 

If  anybody  connected  in  any  way  with  the 
legal  profession  in  this  county  has  ever  produced 
anything  which  came  as  near  as  those  lines  do 
to  being  poetry,  the  writer's  attention  has  not 
been  called  to  it. 

131 


Something  has  been  said  in  an  earlier  part  of 
this  book  about  a  case  in  which  a  man  named 
Price  was  a  witness.  In  some  respects  the  trial 
of  that  case  presented  features  of  unusual  inter- 
est, and  one  of  the  most  dramatic  situations  that 
ever  occurred  in  our  Court  House  arose  on  that 
trial. 

A  man  whoinl  will  call   X was  on  trial 

under  an  indictment  for  murder  in  the  first 
degree.  The  victim  was  a  woman  with  whom 
he  had  been  on  friendly  terms  and  with  whom  he 
had  been  seen  walking  along  a  lonesome  road 
one  evening.  The  next  morning  her  body  was 
found  in  a  gully  at  the  side  of  that  road.  She 
had  been  killed  by  some  one  who  had  caught  up 
a  stone  from  the  roadside  and  struck  her  with 
it  on  the  head.  She  was  somewhat  advanced  in 
pregnancy  and  this  fact  was  supposed  to  have 
led  to  her  taking  off.  The  accused,  an  unmar- 
ried man,  made  his  home  with  a  near-relative 
who  kept  a  hotel  in  a  neighboring  village.  The 
strongest  testimony  against  him  was  given  by 
a  woman  who  lived  nearly  opposite  this  hotel, 
who  swore  that  between  one  and  two  o'clock  of 
the  night  the  murder  was  committed  she  was  in 
bed  but  awake  and  heard  some  persons  going  up 
the  stoop  of  the  hotel.  She  thereupon  looked 
out  of  her  bedroom  window  and  saw  a  man  who 
in  figure  and  size  resembled  the  accused,  and  a 
woman  who  looked  the  size  of  the  victim,  going 
up  the  hotel  stoop;  that  she  heard  knocking  at 
the  hotel  door  and  conversation  between  some- 
body inside  the  hotel  and  the  man  outside;  that 
the  hotel  door  was  then  opened  and  the  man  and 
the  woman  entered.  This  testimony  with  much 
else  less  important  made  the  situation  look  dark 
for  the  accused.  In  order  to  meet  it  the  Mr. 
Price,  already  mentioned,  went  to  the  residence 
of  this  witness,  stretched  himself  upon  the 
bed  in  the  same  place  the  witness  had  sworn 
she   occupied,   and   found, — or  testified   that  he 

132 


found — that  he  could  not  see  the  stoop  of  the 
hotel  to  any  such  extent  as  the  woman  had 
sworn  that  she  saw  it.  This  merely  shows  how 
much  more  a  woman  can  see  when  her  curiosity 
is  aroused  and  her  suspicions  excited  than  a  man 
can  see  under  ordinary  circumstances — for  a  man 
and  a  <woman  did  go  up  that  stoop  and  enter 
that  hotel  on  the  night  in  question  at  the  hour 
and  in  the  manner  testified  to  by  the  woman. 

It  was  years  afterwards  that  the  facts  came  to 
my  knowledge.  The  man  who  was  mistaken  for 
the  accused  then  told  me  the  circumstances.     At 

the  time  of  the  trial  of  X the  man  I  have 

mentioned  was  a  Justice  of  the  Peace  and  by 
pure  accident  was  at  Goshen  and  went  to  the 
Court  House  merely  to  hear  a  murder  case  tired. 
It  happened,  however,  that  one  of  the  Justices 
of  Sessions  was  absent  that  morning  and  the 
Presiding  Justice  (Barnard)  as  he  v/as  required 
by  law  to  do,  appointed  a  Justice  of  the  Peace  to 
act  in  place  of  the  absentee.  His  choice  fell 
upon  the  man  of  whom  I  have  spoken  who, 
without  the  slightest  suspicion  of  what  was  com- 
ing, took  his  seat  on  the  Bench.  The  very  first 
witness  called  was  this  woman  who  had  seen 
the  suspicious  midnight  visit  to  the  hotel.  And 
as  this  acting  Justice  of  Sessions  told  me  the 
story  he  said,  "There  I  sat  all  that  forenoon 
literally  sweating  blood — for  I  tuas  (he  man  tvho 
tuent  up  that  stoop  that  night.  I  had  started  out 
with  a  lady  friend  on  a  lark  and  we  had  been 
detained  by  a  series  of  accidents  until  long  after 
midnight. 

I  could  have  cleared  the  whole  thing  up  in 
five  minutes  but  I  would  have  ruined  the 
woman's  reputation.  It  was  worse  than  any 
nightmare  I  ever  had — but  I  decided  to  let  the 
man  take  his  chances  rather  than  bring  about 
the  certain  destruction  of  the  woman's  good 
name.  The  hotelkeeper  stood  true  to  her.  too." 
Fortunately,  the  accused  was  not  convicted. 

133 


Judge  Gedney  summed  up  for  the  People  in 
that  case  and  portions  of  his  speech  are  still 
remembered  by  people  who  heard  it.  His  per- 
oration was  particularly  impressive.  After 
alluding  very  delicately  to  the  fact  that  the 
victim  was  pregnant  he  closed  with  these  lines 
from  Byron's  poem,  "Don  Juan" — (Canto  IV, 
Verse  XXX)  : 

"She  died,  but  not  alone:  she  held  within 
A  second  principle  of  life,  which  might 
Have  dawned,  a  fair  and  sinless  child  of  sin, 
But  closed  its  little  being  without  light."* 

As  used  by  Judge  Gedney  with  his  perfect 
enunciation  and  deep,  clear,  rich  voice  it  made 
a  profound  impression.  The  accused  was  thus 
charged  with  a  double  murder — one  of  his  vic- 
tims being  innocent  beyond  all  question. 


Fifty  years  ago,  or  thereabouts,  there  was  a 
trio  of  lawyers  whose  offices — (and  homes) — 
were  at  Port  Jervis  but  whose  field  of  practice 
extended  over  a  considerable  section  of  this 
State  and  a  portion  of  northeastern  Pennsylvania. 
They  are  hardly  entitled  to  be  classed  among  the 
prominent  lawyers  of  this  county  but  were  all 
keen,  shrewd,  adroit  case  triers  with  more  natural 
ability  than  legal  attainments. 

They  were  Oliver  Young,  Thomas  J.  Lyon  and 
James  M.  Allerton.  Portraits  of  the  two  named 
first  above  can  be  found  in  Ruttenber  and 
Clark's  History  of  Orange  County  and  for  that 
reason  it  is  not  deemed  necessary  to  reproduce 
them  here.  As  to  the  third  of  the  group — Aller- 
ton— no  portrait  is  known  by  the  writer  to  exist, 
and  as  he  became  the  more  widely  known  of  the 


•  (N.    B.      I   owe  the    location    of    this    quotation     to    my 
friend,    Judge  Hirschberg-). 

134 


three,  owing  to  his  "forensic  effort"  which  is 
referred  to  later  in  this  book  somewhat  at  length 
it  is  only  fair  that  his  likeness  shall  be  included 
here  in  order  that  the  lawyers  of  Orange  County 
in  years  to  come  may  see  the  portrait  of  the  only 
man  among  us  all  who  ever  made  an  address  to 
a  jury  which  was  "heard  round  the  world.' 
Allerton  and  Lyon  not  only  tried  a  case  well,  but 
they  summed  it  up  with  force  and  ingenuity; 
they  were  also  clever  as  political  "stump"  speak- 
ers. Young  was  a  more  quiet  and  sedate  man 
than  the  others  but  seemed  to  me  to  know  rather 
more  law  than  they. 

To  afford  a  glimpse  of  Lyon  engaged  in  the 
trial  of  a  case  in  the  Supreme  Court  nearly  fifty 
years  ago,  let  me  give  this :  A  witness  opposed 
to  his  client  had  produced  a  certificate  of  good 
character,  signed  by  some  well  known  man,  and 
when  Lyon  came  to  discuss  his  testimony  he 
said:  "When  you  see  a  man  going  about  the 
country  with  a  certificate  of  good  character  in 
his  pocket  you  can  make  up  your  mind  that  he 
expects  to  have  to  use  it.  Nobody  goes  armed 
and  equipped  with  that  kind  of  ammunition  un- 
less he  thinks  somebody  is  going  to  accuse  him 
of  being  a  thief.  You  jurors  have  no  such 
certificates  in  your  pockets,  neither  has  his 
Honor,  the  Judge,  and  even  we  poor  lawyers, 
who  are  accused  of  lots  of  things  that  we  are  not 
guilty  of,  we  have  no  such  documents  in  our 
possession." 

Lyon  was  a  Methodist  minister  before  he 
studied  law  and  had  some  educational  advantages 
which  the  others  of  this  trio  lacked.  As  a  result 
of  this  he  acquired  more  influence  and  a  better 
standing  politically  so  that  he  represented  his 
district  in  the  Assembly  for  two  terms,  in  1869 
and  in  1870. 

Of  the  three  men  here  mentioned  Allerton  was 
the  most  interesting.  He  was  unique.  In  ap- 
pearance, in  manner,  in  gesture  he  was  odd.     He 

llVi 


was  too  much  of  a  man  to  be  an  object  of  ridicule 
or  to  be  laughed  at, — except  whe  i  he  inteinicid  to 
make  you  laugh;  then  he  v.'as  simply  irresistible; 
his  mock  seriousness  and  gravity  and  his  seeming 
earnv^jtncss  and  sinceritj-  v/ere  too  funny  for 
wordt;.  He  surpassed  himself  when  responding 
to  a  toast  at  a  dinner  whiciri  Thomas  George  gave 
to  the  lawyers  of  the  cou  ity  immediately  after 
his  election  io  the  office  of  County  Judge  in  1867. 
Fullertoi — S.  W. — was  the  toastmaster  <.::.'l  he 
indi  '.ed  Allerton  to  respond  to  the  sen^ir,  ent, 
"First  Impressions  of  the  Orange  'Jouity  Bar," 
and  the  way  in  which  he  did  it  w  is  i  lin  itable. 
He  said  that  his  first  impressions  of  the  lawyers 
of  the  county  were  unfavorable.  That  one 
beautiful  spring  morning,  years  before,  he  had 
seen  two  "fellers"  wandering  about  a  "medder" 
in.  the  neighborhood  of  a  toll-gate  which  he  then 
k.  -  nd  which  then  kept  him  after  a  pretty 
po  )i  .'-  hion — up  on  the  Sparrowbush  Turnpike. 
One  of  them  was  a  big,  stout,  curly-haired 
"feller" — (here  he  looked  hard  at  Winfield) — and 
the  other  was  a  little  "slimpsy"  hatchet-faced 
"chap"  (here  he  turned  his  attention  to  Gedney). 
At  first  he  supposed  that  they  were  engineers 
surveying  a  route  for  some  new  road  or  a  branch 
of  the  railroad  as  they  were  all  the  time  dropping 
strings  into  the  ponds  and  pools  down  along  the 
"medder,"  trying  to  find  how  deep  the  water  was 
he  supposed.  It  never  entered  his  head  to  think 
they  were  fishing  for  to  his  own  personal  knowl- 
edge there  hadn't  been  a  fish  caught  in  any  of 
those  waters  in  more  than  twenty  years  past. 
But  he  was  astonished  to  learn  soon  afterwards 
that  they  were  fishing  and  that  they  were  two  of 
the  most  prominent  lawyers  of  this  county.  And 
he  added,  "I  naturally  started  out  with  a  mighty 
poor  'first  impression  of  the  Orange  County  bar'," 
and  again  he  looked  hard  at  Winfield  and  Gedney. 
By  this  time  his  audience  was  convulsed  with 
laughter,  Winfield  and  Gedney  as  much  so  as  the 

ire 


r 


-,?^ 


JAMES   M.    AI-M:UT0N 


rest,  but  he  went  on  with  a  solemn  face,  about 
as  follows: 

'Not  long  after  that  a  'feller'  came  up  to  my 
place  who  S£id  he  was  the  depu;;y  sheriff  and  he 
gave  me  a  viry  urgent  invitation  to  come  down 
to  Newburgh  and  attend  court  a  week  or  two 
later.  I  accepted  the  invitation — 'done*  it  in 
writing,  and  two  of  my  friends  wagered  a  hun- 
dr^jd  and  fifty  dollars  thac  I  would  keep  my  word. 
So  when  I  was  due  at  t^ewburgh  of  a  Monday 
morning  at  nine  o'clock  I  was  bound  to  be  there 
on  time,  I  concluded  to  foot  it  down  as  vlie 
walking  was  good  and  faro  on  the  railroad  a 
'leeu";'  expensive.  I  thtref.re  started  Sunday 
mon.ing  and  that  day  covered  the  distance  to 
Washingtonville  where  I  spent  the  night.  The 
next  morning  I  started  good  and  early  and  when 
it  come  nine  o'clock  was  sitting  in  the  court 
room  and  was  about  the  only  human  being  in 
sight.  Having  nothing  else  to  do  I  looked  the 
place  over  carefully  and  was  a  good  deal  puzzled 
by  an  inscription  over  the  door.  For  a  good 
while  I  could  not  make  any  sense  at  all  out  of  it 
but  finally  I  thought  I  had  made  it  out  and  I 
wrote  it  down  in  my  little  book,  which  I've  car- 
ried ever  'sen'  I  was  a  boy."  Here  he  took  from 
his  coat-pocket  a  little  well-worn  memorandum 
book  and  read, — or  pretended  to  read  from  it, 
as  follows:  "Post  ignorant  Irish  jurors  to  eat 
East  River  clams  scientifically.""  Shouts  of 
laughter  greeted  this  sally  but  Allerton's  face 
was  without  a  smile  and  he  proceeded  to  distri- 
bute several  other  good  hits  and  finally  closed 
with  something  like  this:  "As  I  said  awliilc  ago 
my  first  impressions  of  the  Orange  County 
lawyers  were  rather  unfavorable;  but  since  I 
became  one  of  their  number  they  have  all  treated 
me  always  with  so  much  kindness  and  consid- 
eration that  my  opinion  of  them  has  improved 
from  year  to  year  until  I  have  come  to  consider 


•  Potlus  Ignorantta  Juris  litlRiosa  est.  qu.nm    scientla. 

187 


them  now  a  lot  of  blame  good  fellers  "jintiy 
and  severally'."  As  may  be  imagined  the  ap- 
plause was  loud  and  long. 

Allerton's  address  to  the  jury  in  his  own 
defence  when  he  was  on  trial  for  assault  and 
battery  was  doubtless  more  widely  read  than  any 
other  speech  delivered  before  an  Orange  County 
jury. 

It  is  said  to  have  been  printed  as  a  specimen 
of  Yankee  wit  in  the  newspapers  wherever  the 
English  language  is  spoken.  That  is  one  reason 
why  it  is  printed  here  entire.  Another  reason 
is  that  it  is  even  now  very  hard  to  find  a  copy  of 
it  and  before  many  years  it  would  be  entirely  lost 
to  the  Orange  County  lawyers.  It  was  Allerton's 
success  on  this  trial  that  led  him  to  study  law. 

"The  following  amusing  case  was  tried  at  the 
recent  term  of  the  Orange  County  Court  and  we 
find  it  reported  in  the  Newburgh  Telegraph: 

The  People  against  James  Allington. 
District  Attorney  for  People. 
Prisoner  in  Person. 

This  was  one  of  the  most  amusing  trials  ever 
witnessed  by  bench  or  jury  in  this  community. 
The  prisoner  was  indicted  for  an  assault  and 
battery  upon  a  man  by  the  name  of  Dodder. 

It  seems  that  a  plank-road  had  just  been  laid 
in  the  Town  of  Minisink  running  through  the 
lands  of  said  Dodder,  and  that  Allington  is  the 
the  toll  gatherer,  and  that  the  gate  house  is  built 
on,  or  adjoining  the  lands  of  Dodder.  The  other 
facts  will  appear  in  evidence. 

The  case  was  duly  opened  by  the  District 
Attorney  when  his  Honor,  the  Judge,  noticed  the 
defendant  sitting  within  the  bar,  with  pencil  in 
hand,  ready  to  take  down  evidence,  without 
counsel. 

"Have  you  no  counsel,  Mr.  Allington?"  inquir- 
ed the  Judge. 

"No,  sir." 

138 


"There  are  plenty  of  gentlemen  around  you 
who  would  be  willing  to  assist  you." 

"Well,  Your  Honor,  I  have  feed  one  and 
engaged  another,  and  they  both  turn  up  missing, 
and  therefore  I  have  concluded  to  try  the  case 
myself." 

"Very  well,  sir." 
The  District  Attorney,  after  stating  the  case  to 
the  jury,  called  the  complainant,   Mr.   Dodder, 
upon  the  stand,  who  testified  as  follows: 

*'I  know  the  defendant;  he  is  a  neighbor  of 
mine.  I  was  driving  his  cows  off  my  land  when 
he  came  out  upon  the  road  and  stoned  me.  He 
sent  as  many  as  a  dozen  at  me  and  the  last  one 
struck  me  upon  the  back  of  my  neck.  It  hurt 
me  considerably;  not  very  badly  however,  as  the 
rim  of  my  hat  hung  down  and  it  and  my  coat 
collar  prevented." 

"You  may  examine  him  now,  Mr.  Allington," 
said  the  District  Attorney. 

All  eyes  were  now  turned  upon  the  defendant. 
There  he  sat,  busily  engaged  in  taking  notes. 
A  little,  short,  red-headed  Yankee,  with  his  feet 
resting  on  the  lower  round  of  the  chair  and  his 
body  bent  forward  at  an  angle  of  forty-five  de- 
grees. At  that  remark  he  snapped  his  head  back 
like  a  blade  in  a  jack-knife,  his  eyes  twinkled, 
and  in  a  shrill,  loud  voice  he  commenced : 

"Have    you    been    on    good    terms    with    the 
defendant, — I  mean  me,  Mr.  Dodder?" 
Dodder  hesitated. 

"Come,  Mr.  Dodder,  have  we  been  on  good 
terms?" 

"I  can't  say,"  replied  Dodder. 
"Well   recollect,   Mr.    Dodder,   that   you   must 
say." 

"Say  yes  or  no,"  interposed  his  Honor. 
"Yes,  or  no,"  responded  the  defendant. 
"I  can't  say  that  we  are  on  speaking  terms," 
answered  Dodder. 

"Well,  Mr.  Dodder,  you  say  that  I  struck  you 


lifit 


with  a  stone.  Will  you  please  state  to  the  jury 
whether  it  was  the  first  stone  that  struck  you?" 

"No,  sir." 

"Did  it  not  go  fifteen  feet  to  the  right?" 

"About  that." 

"Well,  was  it  the  second?" 

"No,  sir." 

"Did  not  that  go  three  feet  over  your  head?" 

"Yes,  sir." 

"Were  you  not  running  after  my  cow  with  a 
stake, — sharpened  at  one  end?  And  did  you  not 
knock  her  down?  And  was  it  not  because  you 
would  not  stop  that  I  sent  the  other  stone  at 
you?" 

"Well,  sir,  I  must  explain." 

"None  of  your  rigmaroles  here,  Mr.  Dodder. 
No  explanations,  sir, — yes,  or  no." 

"I  can't  answer." 

"You  must  answer.     Come,  sir,  yes,  or  no." 

"It  wasn't  a  stake,  it  was  a  stick." 

"Yes,  two  and  one-half  inches  at  the  butt  and 
twelve  feet  long." 

"No,  sir,  one  inch  across  and  tapering  to  the 
end." 

"You  knocked  the  cow  down,  didn't  you?" 

"I  struck  at  her, — can't  say  I  struck  her." 

"Didn't  she  fall?" 

"Can't  say." 

"Well,  Mr.  Dodder,  you  were  chasing  her  were 
you  not?" 

"I  was  in  the  road,  sir,  and  she  was  on  the  side." 

"Was  it  icy?" 

"Yes." 

"Snow  deep?" 

"Yes." 

"Now  will  you  say  on  your  oath,  Mr.  Dodder, 
that  vou  did  not  strike  her?" 

(Witness  hesitating) — "I  will  not  be  positive." 

"Well,  Mr.  Dodder,  were  you  coming  toward 
me?" 

"Yes,  sir." 


"You  was  coming  up  the  road  and  I  was  going 
down?" 

"Yes,  sir." 

"You  did  not  run  back  at  all,  did  you?" 

"No,  sir." 

"You  are  sure  you  did  not  look  or  go  back, 
are  you?" 

"Certainly  I  am." 

"Are  you  as  positive  of  that  as  you  are  of  all 
the  rest  you  have  sworn  to?" 

"I  am,  sir." 

"Well,  sir,  will  you  please  to  inform  this  jury 
and  myself  how  that  stone  came  to  strike  you  on 
the  back  of  the  neck?" 

Witness  was  evidently  non-plussed  and  a  roar 
of  laughter  burst  from  bench,  bar  and  jury,  as 
well  as  the  spectators. 

"I  am  not  done  with  you  yet,"  exclaimed  the 
defendant  as  Mr.  Dodder  seemed  rather  uneasy 
and  inclined  to  vacate  the  chair. 

"Whose  house  do  I  live  in,  Mr.  Dodder?" 

"I  consider  it  mine." 

"Did  you  serve  a  notice  on  me  not  to  use  the 
rooms,  the  garret  or  the  cellar  when  I  was  mov- 
ing in  it?" 

"Yes,  sir." 

"Was  there  anything  else  to  use,  sir?" 

"No.  sir." 

"Who  built  the  house?" 

"The  Plank  Road  Company." 

"In  whose  possession  is  it,  Mr.  Dodder?" 

"Plank  Road  Company." 

"How  did  you  come  to  say  that  the  house  was 
yours  when  the  Company  have  it  in  possession 
and  built  it?" 

Another  burst  of  laup;htcr  followed  tliis  ques- 
tion and  poor  Dodder  looked  as  if  he  was  sitting 
upon  a  hctchcl.     Dodder  gave  no  reply. 

"Now,  Mr.  Dodder,  have  you  not  been  trying 
to  get  me  out  of  that  house  that  you  might  get 
your  son  in  my  place?     And  have  you  not  been 

141 


to  the  directors?  and  have  you  not  applied  to 
them  for  your  son?  and  have  you  not  told  them 
things  derogatory  to  my  character?  None  of 
your  long  preambles,  Mr.  Dodder,  you  know  it 
is  so,  and  I  am  going  to  prove  it,  too.  Yes  or 
no?" 

"I  can't  answer;  I  must  explain." 

"No  explanation,  sir, — yes  or  no." 

"No." 

"Did  you  not  go  to  three  of  the  directors?" 

"Yes." 

"Did  you  not  order  a  window  put  in  the  cellar 
of  the  house,  when  building,  and  say  you  wanted 
it  there  for  your  son's  accommodation?" 

"I  might  have  done  it." 

"Did  you  not  get  a  warrant  out  for  me  before 
I  was  bound  over  to  appear  here? 

"Yes." 

"Did  you  not  then  swear  that  I  had  only 
assaulted  you  by  throwing  stones  but  did  not 
hit  you?" 

Dodder  was  completely  staggered  again, — he 
changed  all  manner  of  colors  and  moved  about 
very  uneasily  in  his  chair. 

"Come,  Mr.  Dodder,  answer,"  exclaimed  the 
defendant. 

"I  can't  remember." 

"Yes,  you  do, — come,  think,  did  you  then  swear 
I  had  hit  you  at  all,  sir?" 

"I  might  not." 

"How  comes  it  that  you  remember  it  now, 
three  months  after,  and  could  not  then?" 

This  was  too  much  for  poor  Dodder.  He  look- 
ed appealingly  around  for  relief.  Nothing  met 
his  gaze  but  a  room  convulsed  with  laughter. 
His  legs  seemed  to  be  under  magnetic  influence 
and  in  great  desire  to  try  their  powers  of  loco- 
motion. At  last  the  defendant  told  him  to  go. 
"That  will  do,  Mr.  Dodder,— I  guess  we  are 
through  with  you  for  the  present,— and  off  he 
shot  as  if  death  was  behind  him,  while  the  whole 


142 


bar  fairly  screamed  as  he  made  awful  strides 
down  the  aisle,  and  the  court  buried  their  faces 
in  their  handkerchiefs  and  shook  convulsively. 

Dodder  No.  2  was  then  called, — son  of  the  old 
Dodder, — who  testified  as  follows : 

"I  was  in  the  house, — heard  a  noise, — saw 
father  driving  cows;  saw  defendant  come  out  of 
his  house  and  throw  stones.  I  ran  out,  and  a 
hill  was  between  me  and  them,  and  when  I  got 
up  all  was  over.  Saw  defendant  throw  three 
stones ;  did  not  see  any  strike." 

Cross-examined  by  defendant : 

"You  were  in  the  house  you  say?" 

"Yes." 

"Is  there  not  a  hill  twenty  feet  high  between 
your  house  and  where  I  was?" 

"About  that." 

"How  many  stone-walls  also?     About  four?" 

"About  that." 

"How  many  plank  fences,  or  slab  fences? 
Two?" 

"Only  one,  I  think." 

"Well,  sir,  how  could  you  see  through  four 
stone-walls,  one  slab  fence,  and  a  hill  twenty  feet 
high?     That  will  do,  sir,  you  can  go." 

And,  without  waiting  to  reply,  off  went  Dodder 
No.  2. 

District  Attorney  on  the  part  of  the  people 
here  rested. 

The  defendant  then,  with  all  the  gravity  be- 
coming such  an  important  occasion,  untwisted 
his  legs  from  the  rounds  of  the  chair,  and  with 
more  than  usual  dignity  walked  out  in  front  of 
the  jury  and  offered  his  defence  as  follows: 

"If  you  please.  Your  Honor,  and  Gentlemen  of 
the  Jury — I  am  a  green  hand  at  this  'ere  bizziness. 
I  am  ashamed  that  such  a  little,  small  concern, 
should  ever  come  before  an  Orange  County  jury. 
It  was  not  my  wish  I  am  sure.  I  was  taken  up 
once  before  and  then  he  only  swore  to  an  assault; 
but  three  months'  thinking  has  put  the  battery 

MR 


to  it.  I  acknowledge  the  assault,  but  I  am  justi- 
fied, for  he  was  assaulting  my  cow.  He  has  tried 
to  pick  a  quarrel  with  me  ever  since  I  went  to 
the  gate.  He  stones  my  cows  and  my  chickens 
and  I  can't  stand  it.  I  threw  the  stones,  I  admit 
it,— first  fifteen  feet  to  the  right,  then  over  his 
head,  and  when  I  saw  the  cow  fall  as  he  knocked 
her  down  then  I  did  shave  him,  but  I  didn't  hit 
him,— and  that  ain't  all,  I'll  prove  it;  and  I  ask 
you  farmers  if  you  wouldn't  do  the  same  thing? 
I  can  prove  that  he  knocked  her  down  by  my 
brother." 

Defendant's  brother  was  then  called  and  stated 
that  it  was  Sunday  when  the  occurrence  happen- 
ed; saw  complainant.  Dodder,  running  after  and 
striking  at  defendant's  cows;  saw  him  strike  and 
one  fall;  can't  say  he  struck  her;  defendant  ran 
out  and  halloed  to  him;  didn't  mind;  defendant 
threw  stones, — none  hit  him.  I  went  out  and 
when  I  came  up  to  Dodder  he  said  defendant  had 
thrown  stones  at  him  but  he  had  managed  by 
jumping  and  dodging  not  to  have  any  hit  him. 

The  testimony  here  closed. 

The  defendant  then  proceeded  to  sum  up  the 
cause.  His  Honor  dropped  his  pen;  the  jury 
leaned  forward;  the  members  of  the  bar  were 
winking  and  nodding  to  one  another,  and  a  uni- 
versal titter  pervaded  the  room. 

He  commenced, — and  his  sharp,  shrill  voice 
drowned  all  else : 

"Gentlemen  of  the  Jury :  This  is  the  first  time 
I  was  ever  in  such  a  pickle, — never  did  I  before 
appear  before  a  jury  of  my  country.  This  Mr. 
Dodder  has  brought  me  here,  and  I  have  to  ap- 
peal to  you  not  knowing  whether  you  are 
'Woolly  Heads,'  'Silver  Greys,'  'Hard  Shells,'  or 
'Soft  Shells.'  But  I  think  this  Dodder  will  find 
out  before  I  am  through  that  I  am  a  'harder 
shell'  than  he  imagined. 

"You  know,  gentlemen,  that  I  am  in  the  employ 
of  the  Mouqaup  Valley,  Forrestburgh  and  Port 


114 


Jervis  Plankroad  Company  as  a  gate-keeper. 
This  company,  it  seems,  had  sufficient  confidence 
in  my  integrity  and  honesty  to  place  me  in  that 
important  station,  and  even  if  I  should  receive 
$3,000  and  steal  $1,500  of  it  that  is  between  me 
and  the  company,  and  it's  none  of  Dodder's 
business. 

"Now  when  this  company  sent  me  up  along 
this  road  to  collect  tolls  this  Dodder  was  one  of 
the  inhabitants  /  found  there  in  the  <woods,  and 
I  will  say  for  him  that  he  is  a  very  fair  specimen 
of  the  rest  of  the  population.  But  there  isn't  any 
of  them  that  appreciate  all  the  benefits  of  this 
Plank  Road. 

"It  let  out  to  civilization  a  class  of  people  who 
never  before  had  an  idea  there  was  such  a  thing 
as  civilized  life,— an^/  this  Dodder  is  one  of  them. 
It  is  a  fact  that  soon  after  I  moved  up  there  a 
young  woman,  sixteen  years  old,  came  down  out 
of  the  mountains  on  the  Plank  Road,  one  day, 
and  she  had  never  been  out  before.  She  fairly 
seemed  surprised  to  see  a  <u>hite  ma.n  and  after 
asking  a  few  questions  went  back  into  the  woods. 
This  Dodder  was  my  nearest  neighbor,  and  a 
good  deal  nearer  than  I  wanted  him,  and  I  hadn't 
been  there  long  before  I  heard  that  he  had  been 
lying  about  me  to  one  of  the  directors,  and  I 
soon  found  out  that  he  wanted  to  get  his  son, 
who  was  sworn  here  against  me,  in  my  place. 
But  he  hasn't  done  it  yet  and  if  you  don't  convict 
me  I  reckon  he  won't  very  soon. 

"I  won't  take  long  to  dispose  of  Dodder  No.  2. 
He  testifies  that  he  saw  me  throw  three  stones 
at  his  father  and  saw  the  old  man  'dodge.'  On 
cross-examination  he  says  that  he  was  in  his 
own  house,  in  the  'woods,  and  had  to  look  over  a 
hill  twenty  feet  high  and  also  over  three  slab 
fences  and  two  stone-walls.  Well,  if  he  tells  the 
truth  all  I  wish  is  that  I  had  young  Dodder's 
eyes!  He  certainly  is  a  remarkable  boy  and 
can't  deny  his  'father.' 


Mb 


"I  am  willing  to  admit  that  I  done  wrong  in 
throwing  stones  at  Dodder  and  I  apologize  to 
all  the  world,  and  this  county  particularly,  for  it. 
The  doctors  tell  us  that  there  are  two  causes  for 
all  diseases, — pre-disposition  and  excitability — I 
think  it  was  the  latter  cause  that  moved  me  to 
stone  Dodder. 

"I  therefore  confess  myself  guilty  of  the  assault, 
but  the  battery  I  deny, — and  if  you  find  me  guilty 
of  the  battery  I  will  appeal  from  the  decision  to 
the  Court  of  High  Heaven  itself  before  I  will 
submit  to  it. 

Now,  gentlemen,  you  saw  Mr.  Dodder  and 
heard  him  swear  against  me.  I  asked  him  a 
great  many  questions  and  I  was  sorry  to  hear 
him  answer  as  he  did.  I  might  have  asked  him 
more  questions, — I  might  have  asked  him  if  he 
didn't  kill  my  cai  and  if  he  didn't  stone  my 
chickens  because  they  trespassed  in  his  woods, 
where  actually  the  rocks  are  so  thick  that  the 
cats  can't  find  their  way  up  through  them.  But 
then  I  knew  he  would  deny  it  and  it  would  grieve 
me  to  hear  him. 

"He  admits  that  he  was  driving  my  three  cows 
up  the  road  and  that  he  struck  at  one  of  'em,  but 
says  it  was  with  a  small  switch.  I  have  proved 
that  this  'switch'  was  a  pole  about  ten  feet  long 
and  about  two  inches  across  the  butt  end,  and 
I  have  also  proved  that  when  he  struck  the  com) 
fell.  It  is  true  my  witness  couldn't  swear  that 
the  stick  hit  her,  he  was  so  far  off,  but  take  the 
blow  and  the  fall  together  and  we  can  guess  the 
rest.  If  you  gentlemen  should  see  me  point  a 
gun  at  a  man  and  pull  the  trigger,  see  the  flash 
and  hear  the  report  and  at  the  same  time  see  the 
man  drop,  I  think  you  would  say  that  I  shot  him 
although  you  might  not  see  the  ball  strike  him. 

"Now  the  fact  is,  gentlemen,  that  on  Sunday 
I  was  lying  on  my  lounge  in  my  house  when  my 
wife  said  that  Dodder  was  chasing  my  cows. 
I  jumped  up  and  pulled  on  my  boots  and  went 


out  of  doors  and  saw  Dodder  and  the  cows  com- 
ing up  the  road.  It  is  true  he  says  that  he  was 
not  driving  them,  but  says  he  and  the  cows  was 
both  going  along  the  road  m  one  direction — and 
this  is  as  near  as  I  could  get  him  to  the  cows  or 
to  the  truth.  But  it  is  proved  that  the  cows 
were  going  along  ahead  of  him  and  he  was  follow- 
ing after  them  striking  at  them  with  his  little 
switch  ten  feet  long  and  two  inches  across  the 
butt,  and  I  reckon  you'll  think  he  was  driving 
them. 

"I  sung  out  to  him  'Dodder,  stop!'  but  he 
didn't  mind  my  order  and  I  just  threw  a  stone 
in  that  direction,  which  went  about  fifteen  feet 
over  his  head, — at  the  same  time  going  towards 
him.  He  paid  no  attention  and  I  sung  out  again, 
'Dodder,  stop!'  Still  he  didn't  mind  me  and  then 
I  just  threw  another  stone; — but  on  he  came  and 
on  I  went  and  I  threw  the  third  stone  which  he 
says  hit  him  on  the  back  of  the  neck,  but  this 
I  think  is  rather  strange  as  we  were  going  to- 
wards each  other  as  fast  as  we  could  go.  But  he 
never  slacked  up  and  by  this  time  we  were  within 
about  eight  feet  of  each  other.  I  halted  and 
hallooed  at  the  top  of  my  voice,  "Dodder,  ^why 
in  h—l  don't  you  stop!"  About  then  he  did  stop 
and  raised  his  ten-foot  'switch*  as  if  to  strike  me. 
I  sang  out,  'Mr.  Dodder,  look  out!  You  may 
wallup  my  cows  but  if  you  wallup  me  with  that 
switch  you'll  wallup  an  animal  that'll  hook — 
(Here  the  orator  made  a  gesture  with  his  head  as 
if  in  the  act  of  hooking,  which  was  followed  by 
tumultuous  shouts  and  laughter  that  continued 
several  minutes). 

"Now,  gentlemen,  if  you  convict  me  this  court 
can  fine  me  $250  and  jug  me  for  six  months  and 
if  you  really  think  I  ought  to  be  convicted  of  this 
assault  say  so,  for  I  am  in  favor  of  living  up  to 
the  laws  so  long  as  they  are  laws,  whether  it  is 
the  Fugitive  Slave  Law,  the  Nebraska  bill,  or  the 
Excise  Laws.     I  will  read  you  a  little  law  how- 

147 


ever  which  I  have  just  seen  in  a  book  I  found 
here" — (the  speaker  picked  up  a  book  and  read 
as  follows)  :  "  'Every  man  has  a  right  to  defend 
himself  from  personal  violence.'  Now  I  don't 
know  whether  that  is  a  law  or  not  but  I  find  it 
in  a  law  book" — (a  veteran  member  of  the  bar 
who  was  sitting  near  the  speaker  remarked  to 
him  that  it  was  good  law).  "Well,  gentlemen, 
here  is  an  old  man  who  looks  as  if  he  might  know 
something  and  he  says  it's  good  law.  Now  if 
you  will  turn  to  Barbour — something — page  399 
you  will  find  the  same  doctrine  applies  to  cattle 
— (great  laughter).  Therefore  I  take  it  I  had  a 
right  to  defend  my  cows  against  Dodder's  ten- 
foot  'switch.'  Why,  gentlemen,  nearly  all  my 
wealth  is  invested  in  them  three  cows  and  you 
can't  wonder  that  I  became  a  little  excited  when 
I  saw  Dodder  switching  them  with  this  ten-foot 
pole.  I  am  a  poor  man  and  have  a  large  family, 
consisting  of  a  wife  and  six  children,  which  I 
reckon  is  doing  very  well  for  as  small  a  man  as 
I  am  and  I  couldn't  afford  to  let  Dodder  kill  my 
cow! 

"Now,  gentlemen,  I  don't  believe  you'll  convict 
me  after  what  I  have  said,  but  if  you  do  and  this 
court  fines  me  $250  I  shall  'repudiate,'  because  I 
can't  pay.  And  if  I  am  jugged  for  six  months 
why  these  Dodders  will  have  it  all  their  own  way 
up  there.  But  notwithstanding  all  this  I  am 
willing  to  risk  myself  in  your  hands,  and  if  you 
think  I  ought  to  have  stood  by  and  not  done  any- 
thing when  I  saw  Dodder  hammering  my  cows 
why  then  I  am  'a  goner' — toll-gate  and 'all. 

"It  is  true  I  am  a  poor  man,  but  not  a  mean  one. 
The  name  of  Allington  can  be  traced  to  the  May- 
flower. When  she  landed  the  pilgrims  on  Ply- 
mouth Rock  among  the  passengers  was  a  widow, 
Mary  Allington,  with  four  fatherless  children, 
and  I  am  descended  from  that  Puritan  stock ;  and 
from  that  day  to  this  there  has  never  lived  an 
Allington  who  hadn't  Yankee  spirit  enough  to 

148 


stone  a  Dodder  for  poling  his  cows,     /'m  done," 

Roars  of  laughter, — during  which  the  defend- 
ant took  his  seat.  After  a  few  words  from  his 
Honor  the  jury  retired  and  in  a  few  minutes 
returned  with  a  verdict  of  Not  Guiliyl 

Old  Dodder  and  Dodder  No.  2  were  at  that 
instant  seen  plunging  down  the  stairs  leading  to 
the  court  yard  with  unbounded  powers  of  loco- 
motion ;  when  the  yard  was  reached  they  fairly 
ran  and  it  is  supposed  never  stopped  until  the 
deep  woods  of  Minisink  hid  them  from  the  gaze 
of  men. 

Allington  heard  the  verdict  with  the  sang  froid 
of  a  philosopher.  No  emotion  was  observable 
other  than  taking  an  extra  quid  of  tobacco  into 
his  mouth. 

It  may  be  as  well  to  remark  that  the  District 
Attorney  declined  to  be  pitted  against  his  elo- 
quent opponent  and  let  the  cause  go  by  default 
as  he  said  not  a  word  in  reply  to  the  defendant's 
speech.  The  District  Attorney  was  in  a  tight 
place  and  took  the  wisest  course  to  get  out.  It 
is  not  often  he  meets  with  such  a  formidable 
prisoner. 


149 


Newburgh,  N.  v.: 

News  Printing  and  Publishing  Company 

1917 


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